Caingel
by CrazyKitten2112
Summary: In this Maximum Ride/GONE story, set right before FEAR and 8 years after the 99% plan (so Angel isn't 7), the spirit of Little Pete sucks the flock into the FAYZ. When one power hungry control freak falls for another, almost nobody approves of the new relationship. Characters/places belong to Michael Grant and James Patterson. Rated T for a few sex jokes and some swearing.
1. Chapter 1

PETE

Peter Ellison was confused by the avatars in his game. They had begun to frustrate him. He wanted to try a new game and come back to the one he had later on, so Pete expanded his mind as much as he could. He searched for avatars similar to the ones in his game, so he'd have some sort of an idea how to play. Since he was no longer held down by the laws of nature, Pete's search started to travel through time. He could sense time passing, so many things happening in so many places, and then a giant flood. The flood caused so much destruction, but the most powerful had survived. They were mutants, like the ones in his game. Pete had found his avatars. He reached out to grab them and pulled them into his world.

ANGEL

It had been approximately 8 years since the 99% project had given the flock their island home. Angel was soaring through the sky in the greatest mutant bird kid race of all time. Her 23 year old sister, Max was the referee since she had the powers to fly faster than anybody else. Angel wasn't jealous of Max's powers though, she had powers of her own. She could read and control minds, breathe underwater, and more, much, much more.

Angel looked over her snow white wings at her biological brother, The Gasman, who was catching up to her. She flapped her wings harder and tried to speed up, but Angel was getting tired. Back when Angel was seven, a day long race at top speed would have been a snap for her. Angel was fifteen now, though, and her life had majorly calmed down.

Seeing the gleeful look in Gazzy's eyes, Angel did the mature thing and slowed down, just the tiniest bit. The Gasman's thoughts had made angel realize how embarrassed Gazzy would be if he lost to his little sister. Gazzy sped over her head shouting, "SAYONARA SISTER!"

Angel just grinned to herself, she was lagging behind the rest of the group, but she didn't care. She just looked up and admired the stars. The beautiful tropical sunset was fading into darkness. Angel didn't want to go anywhere else in the world, ever again. She looked ahead at all of her friends, but they weren't all there. She could only count 7 flying creatures, but at least they were her favorite flying creatures. They were the flock.

Max, Fang, Iggy, and Dylan were 23 years old and had remained close to each other, but the others had become distanced from them. Accept for Angel and Max. Despite their ups and downs, they knew nothing would ever tear them apart. Nudge was about 21 and had fell into the perfect group of friends for her. They had all been so obsessed with pop culture that they'd earned the nickname the MTV Mutants. The Gasman, who was 17, had gone a little bit girl crazy when he turned 14 and spent most of his time with his crazy friends trying to pick up chicks.

Angel kept to herself mostly, she had a few friends, but she wasn't very close with any of them. Angel sometimes longed for the days when it was just her and the flock. _I really should be careful what I wish for, _Angel told herself, _Because I think my wishes have just started coming true. _

Angel didn't need her powers to tell the flock was in panic mode. Not only were they alone, but there was nothing else surrounding them. Their tropical island home had disappeared and they were flying through complete nothingness. Nobody could see, hear, feel, smell, or taste anything. The only thing that Angel could sense was the presence of a little boy who didn't seem like he was really there.

Suddenly, it was like somebody flicked on the five senses and the flock found themselves inside a very strange place. They were flying over a small town that didn't seem to have any power. Everyone in the streets looked to be younger than most of the flock and they all looked starving. The strangest detail of it all was that the whole area was enclosed in giant translucent bubble. The bubble itself was a translucent grey color.

"Land!" Max ordered.

"Where?" Nudge wondered, but Angel already knew. She adjusted her wings and prepared to land in the town.

CAINE

"Oh, Caaaaine!" Penny called in a sing song voice.

"What is it?" Caine groaned.

"Apparently, an angel just landed in the middle of your town," Penny said, not believing what any of the kids had told her to tell 'His Royal Highness'. The only reason she had even told Caine about it was so he'd go off on a wild goose chase looking for imaginary angels.

"An angel?" Caine wondered.

"That's what some of your loyal subjects told me," Penny replied, infusing a strong dose of acid into the words 'loyal subjects'.

"Were these kids high, by any chance?" Caine asked.

"Nope, completely sane," Penny answered.

Caine laughed at the idea of anybody being completely sane in the FAYZ. Then again, Caine assumed that everybody seemed sane to somebody who was as crazy as Penny. The funny thing was that if Penny said that a portal to Hell had opened up and demons were terrorizing innocent children, Caine would've believed her easily. But an angel in the FAYZ? That was just crazy.

When Caine got down to town square he realized that Penny was right. Well, almost right. There wasn't just one Angel, there were eight. They didn't look like the angels from churches or art, though. They just looked like normal young adults with wings. The only one of them who looked young enough to be in the FAYZ was the innocent looking blonde girl with blue eyes and pure white wings.

Caine noticed Taylor standing next to him and knew that this was the perfect excuse to say something he had wanted to say for about a month; but he had never had the right opportunity to say it until now.

"Taylor," Caine ordered, "Get Diana."


	2. Chapter 2

DIANA

Diana heard a nervous knock on the side of the bathroom. She knew that it had to be Edilio, nobody was the shy around her besides Sam, but Sam usually tried to avoid her for some reason. Then again, Edilio never really made an effort to hang out with her, either.

"Diana, are you in there?" Edilio called.

"Yes, now go away!" Diana shouted, "I'm peeing!"

"I would leave you in PEE-ce," Edilio joked, "but I think this is pretty important."

"Shut up," Diana muttered.

"Sorry, that really wasn't funny, was it?" Edilio wondered.

"No, it was hilarious," Diana told him sarcastically, "I died of laughter."

"Forget that, this is serious," Edilio almost ordered, "Taylor's here."

"So, she probably just wants to flirt with Sam," Diana responded.

"No," Edilio reinforced sternly, "She said that Caine sent her here to get you."

"Do you think he knows?" Diana asked, looking down at her baby bump.

"Why else would he need to meet with you?" Edilio questioned.

"Because he's a desperate loser who thinks he can get me back," Diana offered.

"Maybe," Edilio agreed, "But then what will happen when he sees that you're…you know…"

"Simple," Diana stated, "We'll work something out about the baby and he'll finally keep his hands off of me since I'm knocked up."

"You try that," Edilio sighed, giving up his mission to make Diana see how important her relationship drama had become.

When Diana stepped out of the bathroom, she went with Edilio to find Taylor. To her surprise Taylor was gone. Edilio and Diana looked around for a few minutes until Sam, Astrid, and Dekka walked up to them.

"Hey, where did Taylor go?" Edilio inquired.

"Back to the Beach," Sam told him, "You and Dekka are going to escort Diana back there so we can make sure that she's not up to anything."

Diana just rolled her eyes. She was done doing whatever Caine wanted. Her life was centered on someone, or something, else. Despite the fact that her baby might not even be human, Diana was secretly excited for its arrival. She was sure that no matter what it was, she would love it. But how could she not? It would be hers.

Dekka and Edilio each grabbed one of Diana's arms and began to lead her to Perdido Beach. With the mention of Caine's name Diana had gone from a somewhat annoying citizen of the lake to a devious traitor who was planning to stab them in the back so Caine could kill them all.

"C'mon you guys" Diana complained, "Just because Caine wants to talk to me it doesn't mean I'm still working with him."

"You mean working for him," Dekka mumbled under her breath.

Diana ignored the comment and broke free from Dekka and Edilio.

An emotion ocean sloshed around in Diana's stomach. She was embarrassed by almost everything she felt besides her desire to protect her unborn child. She was embarrassed by the sadness she felt. This whole trip was just a bitter reminder of how Caine had chosen power over her. She also hated Caine, but she had always felt that way. Diana's hatred wasn't the feeling that made her nauseous, though. The feeling that made her feel sick was love. It wasn't a huge part of her, but it was still in there. It was just a tiny sensation in the back of her mind. A miniature surge of joy that came from the idea of Caine wanting her back.

ANGEL

The flock had been waiting for in an abandoned house for what had seemed like forever. Something that had started out as a crazy and oddly nostalgic adventure had turned into the most boring thing ever.

Angel wasn't exactly sure what to think of the Diana girl that was coming to see them. Everything Angel knew about her came from the minds of the two kids who had escorted the flock into the empty home that was serving as a waiting room/prison. She didn't exactly trust either of them, since they had threatened to use their powers on the flock if they tried to escape. Angel hadn't seen the extremely skinny Asian girl named Penny use her powers of illusion, but she had seen the older boy use his.

When Max had tried to escape by flying through an open window, the guy named Caine had used his powers of levitation on her. With a simple wave of his hand the boy had been able to slam Angel's adopted sister up against the shimmering grey energy barrier. Angel was scared when she read his mind and learned that the sight of Max writhing in pain didn't affect him at all. It had been a long time since the flock had dealt with somebody like him and his accomplice, Penny. To make matters worse, Caine and Penny had the home team advantage since Caine was "king" of Perdido Beach. Angel didn't have to worry about them at the moment, though. Both of them were waiting outside the house for Diana to arrive.

Angel wasn't exactly sure how she was going to feel when that happened. Penny was about to mentally boil over with rage, even though she wasn't acting on it. She did not like Diana at all. If Penny's brain was a color it would be green with envy. Every time Caine said Diana, which had recently begun to happen a lot, Penny's rage levels rose to astronomical heights. And when Penny's rage levels rose to astronomical heights, her thoughts got scary. Angel was pretty sure if given a random word, Penny could use that word to make a vision that would make even the strongest willed people brutally torture themselves.

Caine was the one who really made Angel suspicious about meeting Diana. He was cruel, arrogant, and almost unfeeling. The one thing he had feelings about was Diana, and boy did Caine have feelings. Loathing, lust, longing, and love flew through his mind like fighter jets whenever something made him think of her. Angel admired his ability to keep a cool façade and hide the storm of emotions that was raging inside of him. His thoughts were all over the place, yet they all focused on the same thing. Diana.

There were images. Lots of images. Some of them made Angel wish she couldn't read minds. But the thoughts that came in between them reminded Angel how useful her powers were.

"Hey, Angel, can you tell me what's wrong with that Caine guy?" Max wondered.

Over time Angel's powers had gotten so strong that reading someone's mind was almost like having two brains in her head, so she found hard to explain exactly what people were thinking. Instead, she liked to mentally transmit specific thoughts to her older brother, The Gasman, who could mimic other people's voices.

"I could tell you what Caine is thinking, but I think it would be best if you could hear the way he'd say it," Angel said slyly.

The flock knew what was coming and turned their attention to Gazzy.

"Oh my God, Diana's coming!" Gazzy exclaimed in Caine's voice, "I hope my hair looks fine. Should I ask Penny? No, she'd just say it was stupid and ugly, then she'd tell me to go die in a hole. That girl has some major problems. I hope she doesn't hurt Diana. If she does, I'll kill her! No, no, I need to calm down. Penny's useful. Then again, it would get Albert and Quinn on my side. Yeah, they hate her. No, Diana needs to think I've changed, at least a little bit, if I'm ever going to get her back. If I ever want to get her back. I'm just entertaining the possibility. Oh, who am I kidding? I miss her! I can live without her, though. Yeah, I'm happy now. My life totally rocks. All hail the king. Yeah, all the loser king without a queen. Who knows, maybe Penny will kill me before Diana gets here. That seems like the kind of sucky thing that would happen to me. No that wouldn't bad enough. Diana's gonna come and brutally insult me, tell me all about her amazing new boyfriend who's better than me in every way possible, brutally insult me again, and then team up with Penny to kill me in the longest and most painful possible. Then, after that they'll burn my body and roast marshmallows over it while laughing about how I was probably the biggest failure ever to be born. After they roast their marshmallows (and my corpse) one of Penny will pee on the fire to put it out while Diana makes some joke that I would've found totally hilarious of I was still living. Then the FAYZ wall will come crashing down and they'll meet up with my mom to tell her exactly how smart she was to give me up. She'll agree with everything they say about me and they'll form a Caine Soren Hate Club. The hate club will gain so many members that it will get the world record for the biggest club or organization and Diana will get her annoyingly pretty face in the Guinness Book of World Records, right next to the page were it documents Sam breaking The Most Amazing Person of All Time record. Now that's the kind of thing that would happen to me. And now that I've taken my expectations to the lowest point possible, I should be prepared for anything that Diana has to throw at me. Unless she's dating Sam. Oh, please anything but that! ANYTHING! No it's fine, it's fine. Sam's dating Astrid. Wait, Astrid's no match for Diana! If Diana wanted Sam she could take him! And she wants him alright! From the moment she met him she wanted him! More than she ever wanted me, if I do say so myself."

Throughout The Gasman's rant, the flock felt very uncomfortable. They weren't sure if they were supposed to laugh, show sympathy, or just be disturbed. The only one who didn't seem affected whatsoever was Angel, who, for the first time in her life, felt pretty normal.

CAINE

Caine voraciously gnawed on his thumb, feeling conflicted about his choice to invite Diana to Perdido Beach. His thoughts were literally echoing in his mind. He looked over at Penny, who was twisting an extremely long blade of grass from the house's un-mowed lawn in her fingers. She folded, bent, and stretched the piece of grass in her fingers with a mixture of irritation, boredom, and malice.

"Can you shut up!?" she demanded.

"Huh?" Caine wondered, "I'm not talking."

"You've been doing this random monologue for a while now," Penny told him, "It started out kind of stupid, but then you made up this awesome scenario where Diana and I killed you and it only got worse from there; but then you went all "Oh no! Sam and Diana might just possibly be dating! My life is over!" and the whole thing just started getting on my nerves. Although, it did give me some great ideas for torturing you."

"I didn't say that," Caine began nervously, "I thought it!"

"I can hear your thoughts?" Penny squealed giddily.

"I sure hope not," Caine muttered, "You're bad enough with one power."

"You better be careful what you say, your majesty, because I know all your precious little secrets now," Penny threatened happily.

"Actually, I really don't have to be careful what I say any more because you can just hear it in my mind," Caine shot back casually.

"Quiet down!" Penny ordered, "I can't hear your thoughts when you're talking!"

Caine was about to say something snarky just to annoy her when three silhouettes appeared on the horizon.

"Hey!" Caine called awkwardly.

Diana and the other person didn't respond, but Edilio did.

"Hi!" He greeted happily, then remembering he was on an important mission headed, "Why did you invite us here?"

"I didn't exactly ask for all of you, just Diana," Caine replied.

As she came closer, Caine noticed something about Diana, and it was not a good thing. She had gained some weight at the lake, but not in the normal way. It was all on her stomach.

Caine could barely think. He just stood there, staring at Diana's enlarged belly.

Penny couldn't contain her excitement. A smug grin crept across her face and her eyes sparkled mischievously.

"Congratulations!" Penny cheered. She clapped her hands together and giggled to herself.

"Thanks," Diana murmured softly, not exactly sure how to feel.

Caine's voice was faintly audible, but his lips weren't moving, "Pleases don't be…I can't even think it! What if it's not mine? She could just be fat. In the FAYZ? Who am I kidding?"

"Ha, ha, very funny Penny," Diana said sarcastically. She held her hand out and tried to wave it through Caine's waist, since she thought he was just one of Penny's illusions. Her hand didn't pass through, so it just looked like she was lightly slapping him with the side of her hand. Caine tried to grab her hand, but she yanked it away.

"Please say you're not…" The Caine voice began, but he didn't finish. Someone inside the house must have shushed it. Inside the house. That had to be it. One of those weird bird kids must have had the powers to say other people's thoughts aloud. Penny couldn't read his mind, the only thing powerful about it was the ability to hear someone talking out an open window.

Caine took a deep breath and used his powers to throw open the door. Someone in there was going to die.

ANGEL

Caine was embarrassed, shocked, sad, and confused. He was finding everything that he was feeling impossible to process. Worst of all, he had heard Gazzy. Angel hadn't meant for Gazzy to mock him, but it had probably seemed like mocking. Caine was prepared to kill, no not prepared, that made it sound like he had planned something. Ready wasn't the right word, and neither was able. Angel couldn't think of the right word to describe it. She didn't even think there was a word in the English language for when you're so mad, and scared, and confused that you can't stop yourself from using the power of levitation to destroy something.


	3. Chapter 3

ANGEL

Caine was just about to lift Gazzy into the air when Angel turned her mind control powers on him. Caine had no choice but to obey, so he let The Gasman fall to the ground. Just before he hit the ground Gazzy extended his wings and soared to Max's side. Max was seething with rage and the rest of the flock looked scared; except for Fang, who wasn't a huge fan of the whole "emotions" concept. Penny had been watching in the doorway. She was kind of disappointed that she hadn't gotten the carnage show she'd been expecting. Diana, Dekka, and Edilio were crowded behind her, feeling relieved that Penny wasn't getting her carnage show.

"What the heck?" Caine wondered, sounding annoyed.

Angel kept her focus locked on Caine's mind. He was going to fire up his powers again.

_Not if I have anything to do about it, _Angel thought to herself, using her own powers to prevent Caine from using his. This cycle continued for forty five awkward seconds. Only Angel fully comprehended what was going on.

Caine's inability to use his powers was making him very angry. He had begun swearing under his breath and furiously pacing around the room. He was making up some pretty crazy theories about what had happened to his powers. Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Edilio were kind of scared. Penny, Diana, and Angel were enjoying Caine's little tantrum. Max, Fang, and Dekka were just bored.

"Sorry to interrupt your hissy fit," Diana told Caine, "But I'm pretty sure you didn't invite me here just to watch you freak out."

Caine moaned softly, took a few deep breaths, and regained his composure.

"Someone with powers, use them," he ordered.

Penny's eyes lit up and she started thinking of a creative way to make Caine torture himself. She raised her hands and pointed them at Caine. Angel peeked into his mind and sensed the fear that had taken it over. Angel decided that she couldn't let Penny do anything that could make someone as reckless and cruel as Caine feel that way. She used her mind control to stop Penny, which frustrated the skinny twelve year old girl.

"They're broken!" Penny shouted in mixture of anger, disappointment, and despair.

"Wait, what are broken?" Iggy wondered.

"My powers!" Penny exclaimed, "One of you did it! One you bird freaks!"

"You're right, Penny," Angel stated sweetly, "To a certain extent. I didn't break your powers, I just prevented you from using them. Caine too."

"How?" the FAYZ kids wondered in unison.

"Mind control," Angel explained, "It's one of my powers. I can also read minds, and if I want to I can communicate with other people inside their minds. Gazzy can mimic voices, nothing else. I told him to say your thoughts aloud, Caine. So if you want to kill someone, kill me."

Caine glared at Angel and raised his hands to use his powers. Angel made him lower them without having to say a word. Then she made him lay down and the floor. She circled him once, sizing him up. He was surprisingly attractive for a starving boy. She looked down at him, smirked, and let out a little giggle. She was almost having fun giving this arrogant, power hungry boy a taste of his own medicine.

"Oh, that's right, you can't kill me," Angel teased playfully.

Angel cracked open his mind like a walnut. He was embarrassed. No, embarrassed was an understatement. He felt mortified. He used to let Diana make fun of him, and Angel was pretty sure he'd let her do it again if it meant that she would take him back. He'd never let anyone else give him flack before, though. Any time someone besides Diana made fun of him, they'd either been thrown or had something thrown at them. He wished he could do that to Angel too, but her mind control was too powerful for him to do that. The only question was how powerful.

"Diana, read her," Caine ordered.

"Sorry, Caine, but I'm done doing that for you. In fact, I'm done doing anything for you. Anything at all," Diana told him.

Caine sighed. To most people in the room it just sounded like an annoyed sigh, but Angel knew the real emotion that had triggered it. Sadness. When Diana had left him, the feeling took her place as his roommate.

For some odd reason, Angel pitied the boy who called himself King Caine. Then again, maybe it wasn't that odd. Angel knew what it was like to want power, even when the people you loved most didn't want you to have it. A very long time ago, she had tried to take over the flock, but, overall, it had been unsuccessful.

Angel looked into Diana's mind. At the time she was oblivious to how Caine really felt. She put his emotions in the same category as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster. They could have been real, but most people doubted their existence. Angel could've told Diana that Caine missed her, but for some reason, she just wanted Diana out of his life.

"Perhaps you didn't hear me, Diana. Read her," Caine ordered, raising his hands and pointing his palms at her. Only he and Angel knew that he probably wouldn't throw her. At least, not very hard. Diana didn't know that though, so she reluctantly stood up and walked over to the Angel.

She took Angel's hand and held it in hers for a couple of seconds. Diana was shocked by how high Angel's power level was. Angel felt Diana's grip loosen, and then she fainted. Angel looked down at Diana who lay in a heap on the floor. A cold shadow of fear fell over Angel's heart. What was Caine going to do with her?

"What did you do to her?!" Caine asked furiously, then, finding his cool again he said, "Is that one of your powers?"

Angel felt like she should've been afraid, but for some weird reason she wasn't.

"I'm pretty sure I can't knock people out on contact. I stopped developing powers a long time ago," Angel explained.

"Can you do anything you haven't told me about?" Caine wondered.

"A couple of things," Angel said casually, "But I'm not sure if I can trust you yet."

Caine understood trust issues, since he had enough of his own, but he still wanted to know Angel and the rest of the flock's powers.

"None of us are going to tell you," Angel told him.

"Not yet, but eventually," Caine said with a smirk.

PENNY

When he was done talking to the blonde girl, Caine sent the group of bird freaks that called themselves the flock away. He had told Dekka and Edilio that they could stay in one of the many empty houses in Perdido Beach, as long as they kept Diana from heading back to the lake. Caine insisted that he only wanted Diana to stay because he still needed her to read the new mutants' powers, but everyone knew better than that.

Penny didn't care though, most of her feelings for Caine had disappeared when he had broken her legs. She had tried to kill the rest of them, but Penny feared she might always be a little bit in love with Caine Soren. That didn't mean she hated him any less, though. In fact, that tiny shred affection she still felt for him was the very thing that fueled her hatred. Why would she care that he didn't love her if she didn't still have feelings for him?

Penny had wanted to break Caine's heart for a while now. Diana had done a good enough job breaking it when she left, but Penny hadn't been satisfied. She'd been trying to plan something that would send him spiraling towards suicide, but she hadn't been able to think of anything until the flock had shown up. That's when it had hit her.

Penny would get Caine to fall for another girl. Penny would set up the beautiful dates she had always fantasized about Caine taking her on. She might even use her powers to show Caine's new girlfriend how unbearably gorgeous he was before the FAYZ. Eventually, Caine would fall for this new girl. Penny would make sure of it. And when that happened Penny would perform the final step of her plan. Penny would kill Caine's new girlfriend.

The question of who Penny would set up with Caine never crossed her mind. Angel was in fact the person (if you could call her a person) that had inspired Penny's evil plan. She was a pretty girl, but that didn't really matter. All that did matter was that she wasn't a starving one. Penny hoped Caine would be able to see past her bird wings. He had been too superficial to see past Penny's broken legs, stringy hair, and extreme skinniness. Or maybe her personality was the problem. No, Penny knew the real problem. She wasn't Diana. Penny wondered if Angel would face the same problem. Since Penny couldn't actually read Caine's mind, there was only one way to find out.

She searched Perdido Beach until she found Caine in his lair. He was sitting in a chair, deep in thought about something.

"Penny," Caine began, "When you first noticed you had powers how long could you use them for?"

"Only like five minutes," Penny told him, "But I got better. I could probably use them for a whole day. 24 hours of fun. Wanna find out?"

Penny raised her left hand and pointed her palm at Caine with a devilish grin on her face.

"I'd rather not," Caine replied, "What would happen when you used them too much?"

"I'd pass out," Penny recalled.

"Like Diana did, earlier today," Caine reminded her.

"I know that," Penny spat, "I was there. You just probably don't remember that because you were too busy ogling Diana."

Caine ignored her and continued to lecture Penny, "Don't you get it? Diana passed out because she was overusing her powers. That-"

"Don't you get it?" Penny shouted, cutting him off, "You and Diana hooked up, now she's gaining weight! Do you know what that means, Caine?"

"She needs to start practicing her powers, so she'll be able to read those new mutants," Caine said, trying to get the conversation back on track.

"No, Caine! It means she's pregnant! P-R-E-G-N-A-N-T!" Penny yelled.

"Very impressive," Caine responded, "I didn't know you could spell."

Penny was angry, but she didn't know what to say. She pointed her hand in Caine's direction and made him see large black rats eating his feet. It wasn't one of Penny's most creative ideas, but she was too angry to think of something clever.

"Use your words Penny," Caine told her unenthusiastically.

"You're not my father, Caine," Penny stated coldly, "You're nobody's father."

"Wait, I thought I was," Caine replied, sounding completely confused.

"I'm not joking," Penny lied. The way she spoke was making her sound extremely convincing. The teasing tone her voice usually had was gone. She sounded dead serious, "The baby isn't your kid. It's Sam's."

"No! You're lying!" Caine screamed, "She wouldn't do that to me!"

"Yes she would!" Penny exclaimed, trying to hold back laughter, "She doesn't care about your emotions!"

"Why would she tell you and not me?" Caine wondered, desperately searching for a reason to prove Penny wrong.

"I wouldn't throw her up against a wall," Penny reasoned.

"Neither would I," Caine murmured, sounding almost emotional.

"Don't lie," Penny ordered him, "You can call yourself a king and parade around town like you own the place, but be done lying."


	4. Chapter 4

MAX

Maximum Ride had only been in the FAYZ for a day, but she already hated it. She and the flock were still being held prisoner in the empty house, but Max seemed to be the only one angry about it.

"I need to get out of here," Max growled.

"Yeah, but what you don't need is to get shot out of the sky," Fang told her.

"I've had people try and do that before," Max reminded him, "It never worked out for them."

"Okay, let's say that you didn't get shot," Fang continued, "What would "King Caine" do if he saw you trying to escape?"

"He'd probably use his powers on me," Max admitted, "But I could probably stay off of his radar."

"Where would you even go?" Fang asked, "We're trapped inside of a giant bubble."

"I could find a way out," Max insisted.

Fang opened his mouth to speak, but instead of words Max heard a knock at the door.

"Who is it!?"Max shouted cautiously.

"It's Quinn, the Fisherman, with a capitol F," A boy called through the closed door.

Max reluctantly got off of the couch she had been sharing with Fang and answered the door.

"Ok, Quinn the Fisherman. I've got two questions for you," Max began, "First of all, what do you want? Secondly, where's this 'A Capitol F' guy?"

Max delivered her joke with such hostility that it just confused Quinn.

"Wait? What?" Quinn asked.

"Just tell me why you're here and leave," Max told him.

"Well, King Caine-" Quinn started to say.

"Do you actually call him that?" Max asked disgustedly.

"Well, he told me to-"

"And you do what he says, too?"

"Do want some fish or not?" Quinn wondered, tired of being interrupted.

"We'll take 'em," Max grumbled bitterly.

Max took the slippery fish from Quinn's hands. There were only three of them. Definitely not enough to feed the flock's huge appetites.

"Um, there's another thing," Quinn added nervously.

"What?" Max asked impatiently.

"King Caine, I mean just Caine, I think, wants to interview you guys," Quinn said quickly so Max couldn't cut him off, "Like, one at a time. Starting with the youngest."

"Angel?" Max wondered protectively.

"I don't know her name, I just know that Caine wants her to go down to town hall for an interview," Quinn told Max. He was obviously getting as annoyed with Max as she was getting with him.

"Thanks for the offer, but she's not going," Max told Quinn firmly.

"Calm down Max, it's just an interview," Angel reassured Max.

"I'm not so sure," Max began, but Angel was already out the door.

CAINE

The king waited for an Angel to arrive at his palace while sitting on a grand throne. Ok, maybe that wasn't what was happening. Still, it sounded a lot cooler than Caine was sitting in a swivel chair in the town hall waiting for Angel to show up. She probably wouldn't even come. The whole flock was probably too edgy and headstrong to sit down for a diplomatic meeting.

"Don't make generalizations like that," Angel told him. She had quietly slipped through the door while he was deep in thought.

Caine hated Angel's powers. He wasn't exactly comfortable with Angel being able to read his every thought, but it was the mind control that got him. It was really hard to manipulate someone who could temporarily rip away your free will without even having to lift her hand.

Angel stood there, reading Caine's mind, for about fifteen seconds. Then, she smiled mischievously and did a big, overdramatic curtsy.

"Are you mocking my title?" Caine asked threateningly.

"I'm kind of trying to show you how stupid it would be if we all acted like we lived in medieval Europe," Angel answered.

"Actually, if everybody acted like that, it would be pretty cool," Caine admitted, picturing everyone in the FAYZ bowing down to him.

"You know, there's already somebody who idolizes you like that," Angel told him tenderly.

"Who?" Caine wondered casually.

_Diana? Is it Diana? _He thought involuntarily.

"Nope," Angel replied.

_Penny? Oh God, please don't bring that creep into this, _Caine thought (willingly this time).

Angel shook her head.

"Who is it then?" Caine questioned.

"You give up?" Angel asked.

_Yes,_ Caine told her mentally. He refused to admit defeat aloud, even on something stupid like this.

"It's you!" Angel explained happily.

"Can we try and have a serious conversation?" Caine pleaded.

"About what, the flock or Diana's pregnancy scandal?" Angel inquired, "Because I'm not going to tell you about the flock, and I really don't want to get involved in the whole Diana thing."

Caine was going to speak, but he didn't need to. Angel read his thoughts and answered his question before he could ask them

"I'm not going to tell you if she's pregnant or not. She has to tell you herself. I'm not going to violate her privacy like that. If you want answers go ask her," Angel told Caine.

"You can go now," Caine said coldly.

Angel wasn't sure why he was so mad, but she had decided it was better not to be around him when he felt that way. She whirled around and walked to the door. She turned the handle, but it was locked.

"I said, you can go now," Caine repeated.

"I know what you said," Angel told him, "But I really can't go now. The door's locked!"

"Who the heck locked the door?" Caine wondered angrily.

"Oh, this door locks from the outside," Angel concluded, using information from Caine's thoughts.

Caine decided Angel's mind reading wasn't all bad. It saved him from wasting a lot of time on pointless explanations.

"You think that Penny girl locked us in?" Angel tried to confirm.

_Most likely,_ Caine thought.

"She has a really scary mind," Angel told Caine.

"I could've told you that," Caine said.

"We need to get out of here," Angel stated.

"How?" Caine wondered.

"Your desk!" Angel exclaimed, "You could use your powers to throw it up against the door and break it down."

"No way! I'm not doing that!" Caine protested, "It's a nice desk!"

"I don't care how important it makes you feel!" Angel exclaimed.

"Stop reading my mind!" Caine yelled back.

"Just throw the desk!" Angel ordered.

"You throw the desk," Caine argued in a snarky way.

For the first time that she could remember, Angel was surprised. Caine hadn't even thought about his response, he had just said it.

"What?" Angel asked, "How come you'll let me throw the desk but you won't?"

"I don't know," Caine told her, "Just throw the desk."

"You throw the desk!" Angel argued.

"You throw the desk!" Caine shouted back.

They argued like this for about six minutes until Angel broke down giggling. The laughter spread to Caine like the deadly plague that had swept over the FAYZ not too long ago.

"What are we doing?" Angel asked through her laughter.

"Obviously, we're arguing about who should throw the desk," Caine said with a grin.

Angel calmed down and said, "We've gotta get out of here."

"Is being in the same room as me really that bad?" Caine wondered. His voice was doing a good job hiding the sorrow he was feeling in his mind.

"No," Angel admitted, "But being locked in a room without any food or water for who knows how long is."

"Somebody will let us out," Caine assured her.

"You can't be so sure about that," Angel told him, "You're not exactly Mr. Popular."

"If we get stuck in here too long I'll throw the desk, but only then," Caine decided.

"Why?" Angel questioned.

Caine just shrugged, but Angel didn't need to be a mind reader to know that he liked her company. He wasn't exactly sure how much or in what way, but he definitely liked her.


	5. Chapter 5

ALBERT

It had been whole day without any sign of "King Caine". It wasn't odd for him to disappear for an hour or so doing who knows what, but this was new. The children whose manual labor kept Perdido Beach afloat were being distracted from their work by the outlandish rumors people had started spreading about his disappearance. Even worse, people had started to ask Albert where he was.

How was Albert supposed to know? He didn't stalk Caine. Whenever kids asked him about the whereabouts of "His Majesty" he told them to go ask Penny. If anyone knew where he was it would be her. For some reason that Albert didn't know or care about, she liked to keep tabs on him. Also, any kid who sought out Penny wouldn't be much of a problem to Albert after they found her.

"Mr. Albert! Mr. Albert!" A little boy called, running up to him, "I still don't know where the king is!"

"Did you ask Penny?" Albert asked halfheartedly. He had already gone through this routine so many times today. It was wasting time, and time was money, even in the FAYZ.

"I did!" The kid told him.

"And she didn't kill you?" Albert asked, making no effort to hide his surprise.

"No, but I thought she was gonna," the boy said, "She got really edgy and threatened to use her powers on me if I didn't leave her alone."

Something was definitely up. Penny always had something to say about what Caine was up to. Usually it was an insult or a rumor that made him look bad, but it was always something. Except for now. Now Penny was as quiet as a mouse and as jumpy as flea. Albert's busy mind was temporarily dominated by one thought. _What had Penny done?_ Albert didn't like Caine, but even "His Royal Highness" didn't deserve a violent death at the hands of creepy little Penny.

Albert walked down to town hall at a leisurely pace. He didn't care about Caine enough to break a sweat running. When Albert entered the building he looked for any sign of Penny's dirty work, which was usually pretty noticeable. There's was nothing out of place besides the sound of laughter coming from behind closed door.

Albert walked over to the door to see who was inside. He turned the knob, but the door didn't open. The old fashioned door had been locked from the outside with a key. _What a stupid design, _Albert noted mentally.

"Someone's on the other side!" Came a sweet sounding girl's voice from behind the door.

"Looks like somebody owes me an apology," Albert heard Caine say.

"Sorry, Mr. Popular," the girl teased.

Albert looked around for the key while Caine and his guest continued talking. Albert didn't care about what they were saying, so he tuned them out.

Just as Albert was about to abandon hope, Penny snuck up behind him.

"Hey, Albert. Don't you think I'm cute today?" Penny greeted.

"Sure, whatever," Albert mumbled, not even looking at her, "There's no chance you have the key to this door, is there?"

"Well, you're in luck because I do," Penny told him cheerily. Penny was strangely chipper, which meant she was doing something bad that would probably cause lots of unnecessary pain and suffering. Just as Albert was about to ask her what she was up to, Penny turned on her heel and ran off. Albert pushed Penny out of his mind. She wasn't his problem unless she started disrupting the already fragile economy.

Albert used the key to unlock the door, which freed Caine and Angel. He hadn't expected them to run out and hug him or anything, but monetary compensation for his time and effort would've been just fine. Instead all he got was a "thanks" from Angel as she left the town hall.

ANGEL

After she'd spent half a day and a night locked in a room with Caine, Angel was hungry. Unfortunately, the FAYZ didn't have enough food to satisfy her massive appetite. After she had a fish, which left her still feeling hungry, Angel went off in search of three things: Penny, a way out of the FAYZ, and more food.

She'd made her way out of the town hall through the double doors that led into it. Then, with a few beats of her wings, she was in the air. Just as she was beginning to get above the rooftops of Perdido Beach, she felt a mysterious force pulling her back down to the ground. It felt almost as if a giant, invisible hand was wrapped around her. Angel knew exactly who was doing this, she just didn't know why.

Caine used his powers to pull Angel down from the skies and set her gently on the pavement.

"Did I give you permission to leave?" Caine wondered. He was partly teasing her, but overall he was being serious.

Angel answered his question with one of her own.

"Did I give you permission to act like a royal pain?" Angel joked.

"I don't need permission to do anything," Caine told her, "From anyone."

"Than neither do I," Angel replied.

Angel started to take off again, but Caine called out, "Wait!"

"Why should I?" Angel shouted over her shoulder. She was flying low to the ground so she could still be heard.

"I just want to know what you're doing," Caine shouted.

"Why?" Angel yelled.

"Come back here and read my mind if you wanna find out," Caine offered loudly.

Angel couldn't help it, she was interested. She did an aerial U turn, flew back to where Caine was standing, and landed gracefully in front of him.

_I might just be able to help you,_ Caine told her mentally, _if you'll help me with Diana._

Angel sighed. She didn't need Caine's help, but, for some reason, she wanted it. She didn't want it this way though. Angel didn't use people the way Diana did. If she was going to spend time with Caine Angel wanted it to be because they liked each other, not because they were both using the other person.

"I don't want to use you, and I don't want you to use me," Angel told Caine, "I just want to be friends."

_Just friends? _Caine asked her in his mind.

Angel nodded and said, "For now."

Caine smiled. He was pretty sure he could handle that.


	6. Chapter 6

NUDGE

Nudge, a talkative young woman who had once been named Monique, wasn't wild about the FAYZ. She missed her food, her boyfriend, and being able to sleep at night without hearing the sounds of kids fighting in the streets outside.

Nudge wasn't the only one being affected by the FAYZ, though. It had started to affect Max before anybody else. She had become agitated and edgy the second they'd appeared in the FAYZ. Iggy and Gazzy were the next ones to show signs of sadness. Iggy started to miss his girlfriend of a very long time, Ella, and Gazzy just didn't like being trapped in a giant dome full of crazy. Even Fang's somber silence seemed sadder. The only one unaffected by the FAYZ was little Angel, who wasn't so little anymore.

"Hey, Nudge," Angel said, walking into the room that Nudge shared with Max. Iggy and Fang shared the second room in the three bedroom house; while biological siblings, Angel and Gazzy shared the remaining one.

"Can't take The Gasman?" Nudge wondered teasingly.

"Well, he's my brother and I love him, but the guy farts in his sleep," Angel admitted, "And boy does it stink!"

Nudge giggled and sat down on her bed. Angel took a seat next to her and the two winged girls sat next to her. Nudge quietly remembered the days when every moment was life or death situation. Without those experiences not a single member of the flock would've been able to survive the FAYZ.

The flock had been so close back then. As life had slowed down and become more peaceful the flock had started to drift apart. The only good thing about the FAYZ was that it was bringing them back together. They were a family again, but they were a family without its youngest member.

"OK, I can't take it anymore!" Angel exclaimed, "You're way too quiet! Who are you and what have you done with Nudge?"  
"Where should I begin?" Nudge wondered aloud, "Why haven't you been hanging out with me and the rest of the flock? Did you make some new friends in the FAYZ or something? Do you want to stay here forever now? Where were yesterday and the day before? You didn't come back to sleep that night? Are you doing some things that kids your age really shouldn't be doing?"

"Whoa, Nudge, slow down. Now let's see, I haven't been hanging out with you guys because I have in fact made a friend. I definitely don't want to stay here forever. I spent part of yesterday and part of the day before locked in the town hall, but I'm fine now and I am definitely NOT doing stuff like that," Angel listed.

"Then what were you doing? Were you all alone? Why were you locked up in the town hall? Who locked you in there? Does Max need to go beat them up?" Nudge asked rapidly.

"Well, the person who locked me up was this crazy girl named Penny. I don't even think Max could handle her because she has the power to make people see things that aren't really there. It doesn't sound like those powers could be used for evil; but trust me, she can be pretty creative, and creepy!"

"Did she lock you up in there all by yourself?" Nudge inquired.

"Well, not exactly. There was this guy in there with me, but we didn't do anything inappropriate like I know you're thinking we did!" Angel told her best friend and adopted sister.

"Ok, I trust you," Nudge began, "But just because you didn't do anything nasty, it doesn't mean that you don't like him!"

"Well, he is nice," Angel admitted, blushing, "And clever, and we have lots in common, and he's actually really hot for a FAYZ kid."

"You do like him!" Nudge exclaimed happily, "Who is it?"

Angel was nervous to tell the flock about her crush, but if any of them would accept him, it would be Nudge.

"Do you really want to know?" Angel wondered.

"Of course, I do! This is your first crush!" Nudge replied excitedly.

"Promise you won't freak out?" Angel asked.

"I don't think so, why would I?" Nudge wondered nervously.

"Because I like Caine Soren," Angel told her.

_Is she sure? _Nudge wondered, _He seems INSANE! None of us know anything about him!_

"Not true," Angel corrected, "I know tons of things about him. I can read minds, remember?"

"Well what do you know about him?" Nudge questioned.

"Well he's ambitious, snarky and actually really sweet in his mind," Angel informed.

"But what about his past?" Nudge asked skeptically.

"He saved everyone from this army of giant bugs once!" Angel recalled, "And he saved his, ex-girlfriend's life at least once."

"And why did this Caine and this girl break up?" Nudge wondered.

"Well, his ex, Diana, said that he could either keep dating her or take over Perdido Beach, and we can all see what he chose," Angel explained, "It was a nice, easy break-up. They're cool now."

Nudge doubted that Caine and Diana were as "cool" as Angel said, but she knew it wasn't her place to meddle in Angel's love life.

Nudge sighed, "Okay, I guess I'm fine with this, but don't expect Max to be."


	7. Chapter 7

DIANA

Diana Ladris woke up on her left side. She grabbed the fancy analog watch on her nightstand and looked at the time. It was only eight am. That was early by FAYZ standards. Next, she inspected the watch itself. It wasn't some kid's watch. It had belonged to a very rich woman. How could Diana tell? Well, it was made out of real silver and had little diamonds encircling the face. Diana was surprised that a watch like that hadn't been destroyed or stolen yet.

The longer she looked at it, the more familiar it seemed. Diana wracked her brain in an attempt to remember where it was from. Then it hit her, the watch had to be from the island. That was the only place where a watch that nice would've been safe from vandals. Actually, it was the only place a watch that nice would be in the first place. Then again, how would a watch that was from the island be in the house that Diana was staying in?

_Caine, _Diana thought to herself. He had probably taken it out of the luggage that she had brought from the island to Perdido Beach. Diana hadn't taken any of it to the lake for a few different reasons. She decided that it would be stupid to lug suitcases full of clothes she'd soon outgrow over a long distance. Along with that, she didn't want the memories that were associated with them. They were too pleasant and too painful at the same time.

Suddenly, there was a knock on her door.

"Who is it?" Diana wondered tiredly.

"It's Angel," a sweet sounding voice called through the door.

Diana went to the door and opened it, revealing a winged girl who looked just as sweet as her voice had sounded.

"Oh, you're that little bird freak that's been hanging out with Caine," Diana muttered with disgust.

"Were just friends," Angel told her.

"Caine doesn't have friends," Diana said.

"Well, he has me," Angel replied.

"Yeah, but everybody knows that neither of you just want to be friends," Diana taunted.

"Actually," Angel corrected, "You'd be happy to know that despite the fact that he kind of likes me, he's still head over heels for you."

_Really? _Diana wondered happily.

"Really," Angel confirmed.

"Whatever," Diana muttered, "You can have him. Heck, Penny could have him for all I care!"

"You confuse me," Angel stated.

"Why?" Diana inquired.

"One minute it seems like you miss Caine, the next you seem like you hate his guts," Angel explained.

"It's called hormones," Diana said in an over exaggeratedly demeaning voice, "You get a lot of them when you're pregnant."

"I can see that," Angel replied.

"Why are you even here?" Diana asked Angel in a tone that made her feel like she was worthless.

"Caine wants you to read my powers, and since we're friends I decided to go along with it," Angel answered.

"The last time I tried that I fainted," Diana told her, "I know Caine's stupid, but even he should be able to remember that."

"Well, he thought that if you practiced enough you'd be able to read my powers," Angel informed Diana.

"And why would I want to do that?" Diana wondered.

"Because you don't have any real friends and you'll hopefully enjoy my company," Angel told Diana, extending her hand so that Diana could hold it.

NUDGE

"Hey, Max," Nudge greeted her adopted sister.

"Hey, Nudge. What's up?" Max wondered.

"ANGEL HAS A CRUSH ON CAINE!" Nudge blurted.

"She has a crush on WHO?" Max growled.

"Nobody," Nudge denied, "I didn't say anything. I'm not sure if Angel would want me to tell you; and you'd probably kick his butt, which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing since he's pretty evil, but that would make Angel mad at you, which lead to her being mad at us, which would be really bad because-"

"Whoa, Nudge, slow down," Max pleaded, "Just tell me who Angel's into."

"Caine Soren," Nudge mumbled.

Max started laughing awkwardly and said, "That's funny Nudge. For a second there I thought that you said Angel, our Angel, liked that crazy guy whose hobbies include pretending like he's royalty, kissing himself in the mirror, and using levitation to hurt people."

"Well, I kind of did say that," Nudge admitted quietly, "More or less."

Max took a deep breath and looked down at the floor. It looked like she was whispering some form of self-control mantra under her breath.

"Um…Max?" Nude squeaked.

"What, Nudge?" Max asked. She spoke softly and forcedly like she was trying her hardest not to scream.

"Are you okay?" Nudge wondered nervously.

"I will be," Max told Nudge, "Right after I kick "King Caine's" butt."

ANGEL

"You're getting a lot better at this," Angel complimented Diana.

"Yeah, I only passed out for one minute that time," Diana agreed sarcastically.

"Well, you're still improving," Angel reassured her.

"I love how you think I care," Diana replied.

Diana had been trying to read Angel's powers for at least an hour. As much as she hated to admit it, Diana did like to hang out with Angel. Angel understood that Diana didn't make fun of her because she hated her. Diana mocked people because that was what Diana did. Diana not making fun of people would be like a fish not swimming.

Angel wasn't sure whether or not she was going to tell Caine that Diana was pregnant. She didn't want Caine to be confused, but Angel also didn't want to invade Diana's privacy anymore than she already had. Angel kind of liked Diana, but not as much as she like Caine. Angel knew that the next time she saw Caine he would ask her about Diana's pregnancy. Angel didn't want to lie to him, but she didn't want to have to avoid him either. She needed Diana to clear this up for herself.

"Hey, Queen Caine, do you want me to read you again or not?" Diana asked impatiently.

"Not really," Angel replied, "I just want you to tell Caine that you're pregnant."

"Seriously? He hasn't figured it out yet?" Diana wondered.

"He hasn't figured it out, but he has started having suspicions," Angel told Diana, "But don't worry. Penny helped him fill in all of the blanks."

"Huh?" Diana grunted.

"Yep, she just told him what you told her," Angel replied mysteriously, since she knew that Diana hadn't told Penny anything.

"What?!" Diana questioned, "I never-"

"Told her anything?" Angel finished for her, "I know that, you know that, Penny knows that. Caine, on the other hand, doesn't know that. You know what else the three of us know that Caine doesn't?"

"What?" Diana asked nervously.

"That Sam Temple isn't the father of your child," Angel answered.

CAINE

The king was, once again, sitting on his swivel chair throne when the oldest bird kid burst into his lair. She walked determinedly and authoritatively. She stopped a few feet away from Caine's desk and put her hands on her hips. The mysterious bird kid named Fang, who she had brought for back up, came in right behind her. Fang glared at Caine in a way that would make anyone uncomfortable, but to both members of the flock's dismay, his royal highness continued to smirk.

"Morning, um…what's your name again?" Caine asked.

"Maximum Ride, AKA your worst nightmare," Max told him sternly.

"What did I do to make you hate me?" Caine wondered, "You know, besides holding you up against the FAYZ wall, which you shouldn't take personally. I do stuff like that to almost everyone."

"Well, you better not do stuff like that to Angel!" Max ordered.

"Why would I? I'm finding her very useful," Caine responded.

"Useful? USEFUL!" Max shouted, "If that means what I think it means I'll take your-"

Fang gently squeezed Max's arm, silently telling her to calm down. He would handle this.

"Sorry, about Max. She's just a little bit angry because Angel is into you," Fang explained.

"Oh, I'm more than a little angry!" Max interjected.

"Wait, slow down! Angel's into me?" Caine asked, accidentally letting his surprise show, "You're saying that Angel is into ME?"

"I don't know why, but yeah," Max answered bitterly.

Almost instantly, Caine seemed to inflate with confidence.

"Who cares why?" Caine began, "I think you guys should let us date."

"Yeah, I should let sweet, innocent, little Angel date a starving crazy person that has declared himself king of the wacko bubble," Max told him sarcastically.

"Actually, I'm not king of the entire "wacko bubble," just Perdido Beach," Caine admitted.

"What else is there to rule?" Max wondered.

"Well, there's this dumb lake," Caine told her, "But the guy in charge is a terrible leader and Taylor says that it's basically communist there."

"What? Teenage commies?" Max questioned.

"Well, yeah, everybody shares everything and they're all supposed to be equal," Caine answered, "Sounds pretty communist to me."

"Quit trying to change the subject!" Max exclaimed, "If you lay so much as one finger on my little Angel, I will kick your butt so hard that blood comes out of your-"

Fang gave Max a "that's enough" look, so she hushed herself and let him finish the talking.

"Stay away from Angel," Fang told Caine coldly.

"No promises," the king replied.


	8. Chapter 8

DIANA

Diana Ladris waited outside Caine's office in town hall. She hoped that if she stood there long enough he would just open the door. Diana couldn't bring herself to knock on Caine's door. If she did that, there would be no way to back out of telling him she was pregnant. Diana decided she was being stupid and knocked on the door. Lightly, but still audible.

Diana heard Caine's footsteps as he came to answer the door. She took a deep breath as she heard the knob turn. She looked down at her feet as the door opened. She couldn't bring herself to look at his face.

Caine didn't speak. Diana didn't speak. They just stood there, silent, for a minute that felt like an hour.

"Come into my office," Caine instructed emotionlessly.

"Fine, I will," Diana muttered, "But if Penny locks us in here, I'm sleeping on the couch and you'll be sleeping on the floor."

"I don't think that you're in any position to choose who does what," Caine threatened, aiming his palm at her.

"You haven't changed a bit, Napoleon," Diana told her ex-boyfriend as she followed him into his office.

Caine sat down in his desk and stared coldly at Diana. It wasn't the longing, almost hungry looking state Diana was used to. It was a stare that he would give one of his subjects. If Caine thought he was going to be able to treat Diana like an underling, he was tragically mistaken.

"So, um... What's your name again?" Caine asked, trying to make it seem like he hadn't been thinking about Diana since she'd left him.

"Cut it out, Drama Queen," Diana replied bitingly, "You can pretend that people like you. You can pretend like I'm going to come back to you. You can pretend like your faithful subjects aren't probably going to overthrow you in a week. But we both know that neither of us could ever forget the other one. Whether its a good thing or not, I don't know, but don't play me like a fool."

"Whatever, Diana," Caine mumbled, "Why are you even here?"

"Okay, there's really no easy way to say this, but," Diana began.

"Just spit it out," Caine cut her off, "You said you didn't want any drama, Diana. Don't be a hypocrite."

Diana took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a few seconds. She opened them, listened to her heartbeat and finally worked up the nerve to say, "I'm pregnant."

"Why do I care?" Caine wondered.

"Because you're the father, you idiot!" Diana exclaimed.

"You don't need to lie, Diana," Caine told her, "Penny told me who the real father is."

"And you believed her? Penny hates us! She was probably lying!" Diana reasoned desperately.

"Just leave me alone," Caine ordered, pointing at the door.

"No!" Diana refused, "I'm not going until leave you believe me!"

"Fine. I believe you. Now leave," Caine told her, completely deadpan.

Diana didn't go, though. She just stood in the middle of Caine's office with her hands on her hips. Caine laid his head down on his desk and groaned.

"Just leave," he moaned softly.

Diana didn't say anything, just walked out the door leaving Caine all alone. It was a sickening case of déjà vu for both of them.

SAM

_Wow, for being one of the most popular people in the FAYZ, I really don't have many friends,_ Sam thought to himself. Without Dekka and Edilio around he had nobody to talk to. Usually, he would've just talked to Astrid; but recently, there had been no Astrid to talk to.

That's why he had gone to Perdido Beach. Edilio and Dekka were down there, along with his old friend Quinn. It had been a long time since Sam had been able to hang out with him. Sam was also curious about the mysterious angels that Diana had needed to read for Caine.

Sam awkwardly walked through the town square, hoping that Caine wouldn't notice him. He was pretty sure that his fraternal twin brother had gotten over trying to kill him, but Sam could never be sure. As Sam wandered through the street, kids were pointing and staring at him. They whispered amongst each other with voices full of awe.

No one spoke to him directly until a little kid walked over to him and asked, "School Bus Sam, are you here to run King Caine out of town again?"

"No," Sam answered, "I just wanted to say hi to my friends and meet these angels that Taylor told me about."

"I know where she lives!" The little boy exclaimed happily, "I know where she lives!"

"Thanks, but I don't really want to see Taylor right now," Sam explained, "Things have been kind of awkward with her ever since I-"

"No, not Taylor! I don't know where Taylor lives! I know where Angel lives!" the kid shouted, "Get it through your head, dude!"

"Is Angel one of those new people?" Sam wondered.

"Yeah! Yeah, she is! You wanna see her?" The kid asked excitedly.

"Sure," Sam replied.

"Yay! Follow me!" the boy cheered.

The little boy lead Sam to the house where the flock was staying. The boy took Sam down a whole bunch of unnecessary turns, but he was five, so it was understandable. When they finally got to the house, Sam thanked him for his help, even though he hadn't been very helpful.

The little boy's response to that was "Thanks Mr. School Bus!"

"Just call me Sam" Sam told the kid.

"Alright!" The kid chirped, then he ran off down the street shouting, "I HELPED SCHOOL BUS SAM! I HELPED SCHOOL BUS SAM!"

Sam knocked on the door, which was answered by a young African American woman with the wings of a hawk.

"Hey, I'm Sam," Sam introduced himself.

"That's a cool name. Mine is Nudge. I chose it myself, my given name was Monique. I guess Nudge is technically just a nickname, but nobody ever really calls me Monique. That's a fun name to say, though. Mo-neek, mo-neek, mo-neek! Try it!"

"Um...no thanks," Sam responded, "Does somebody named Angel live here?"

"Oh yeah, she does!" Nudge replied happily, "Angel! There's someone here to see you!"

"I'm coming!" Angel exclaimed.

Sam's turned his attention to the girl who was quickly making her way down the stairs. She had loosely curled blonde hair, pretty blue eyes, and she was even wearing a white blouse. Angel wasn't a carbon copy, but she sure looked a lot like Astrid.

When she got to the bottom of the stairs, Angel looked at Sam with disappointment on her face.

"What's wrong?" Sam wondered.

"Nothing, I just thought you were somebody else," Angel told him, "Sorry, I look like your ex-girlfriend."

"How did you know that?" Sam wondered.

"Mind reader," Angel explained tapping her head a couple of times with her index finger.

"Wow, that's a cool power," Sam complimented, "How many bars are you?"

"Too many for Diana to read," Angel told him.

Sam was shocked. He was worried about Angel. Sam thought back to Little Pete. Astrid had kept her younger brother's powers a secret because she thought that people would kill him if they knew how powerful he really was. What would happen to Angel if she kept advertising her powers like this?

"Don't worry, Sam," Angel reassured him, "I can protect myself."

Sam wasn't so sure about that. He remembered how Caine and Drake had tried to encase the hands of almost every mutant at Coates academy in cement.

"I don't think Caine will try doing that to me," Angel stated with a mischievous grin on her face, "And I don't even know Drake."

"That doesn't make you safe from him. He's crazy," Sam told her quickly. He wasn't a huge fan of Angel just commenting on his thoughts.

"Isn't everybody here crazy?" Angel wondered.

"Not as crazy as he is," Sam told her, flashing back to the time that Drake whipped him within inches of his life at PBNP.

"You have lots of flashbacks, don't you?" Angel asked teasingly.

Sam just shrugged.

"I'll see you later, Sam," Angel told him, "I'm gonna go see if Diana's done breaking the news to Caine. He's probably gonna need some moral support."

CAINE

The king sat with his head on his desk. He heard the soft click of a door opening and raised his head. Angel walked along the wall until she stood behind Caine's desk. She put her hand on his shoulder in hopes of comforting him. It made him feel a little bit better, but what it mostly did was make him realize how long it had been since he had been touched. Caine just sat there for a few seconds, enjoying the proof that somebody still cared about him.

"I'm so sorry," Angel whispered sympathetically.

This was weird. Caine couldn't remember the last time somebody had felt sorry for him. Had anybody ever felt sorry him?

"Diana did," Angel told him, "She never told you about it, but she did feel sorry for you, like, once or twice."

Caine missed her so much. He'd never tell her that though. That would make him seem desperate. Plus, she'd never take him back. That didn't really matter though, they were past the point of no return. Caine had chosen Perdido Beach and Diana had chosen her baby. They would have to give both of those things up if they got back together, which neither of them would be willing to do.

"You're better without her," Angel commented, "She was holding you back."

"You're right, she was," Caine realized.

"I don't think that you really miss her, you just miss the feeling of somebody loving you," Angel theorized.

Caine didn't really believe that, but Angel didn't call him out on it.

"You and Diana chose different paths," Angel explained, "You should try and move on. Personally, I think you need new a girlfriend. Somebody who wouldn't make you choose between doing what you love and dating them. You need somebody like me."

"Well," Caine began, "I would make a more convincing king if I had a queen by my side."


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Firstly, thanks for sticking with my story for this long. It's my first Fanfiction and I'd love to hear what you think of it. Sorry it took so long for me to update it. If you like to listen to music when you read, I highly suggest listening to Cher Lloyd and Carolina Liar's "Beautiful People" when you read Caine's part of this chapter. **

ANGEL

Caine stood up and looked at Angel. He was 99% sure they were dating now. What was he supposed to do? Caine didn't have any idea. Angel had figured out that he wasn't exactly the most romantic guy in the FAYZ.

_Help me, _Caine mentally willed Angel.

"Well," Angel began, "We could go for a walk on the beach."

"Alright," Caine agreed, "But, we can't take too long. I have a town to run."

Angel smiled at him and held out her hand. Caine took it and lead her out to the beach. When they walked out onto the shore, Angel discovered that it wasn't like any beach she'd ever visited. It sounded different, since there were no waves, but the main difference was in the way it looked. The sand was littered with, well, litter. There were empty water bottles, tons of cigarette butts, crumpled up papers, shattered glass, strange things Angel couldn't identify, and even puke.

"What's wrong?" Caine asked, noticing the look of shock on her face.

"This beach is disgusting," Angel commented.

"The whole FAYZ is disgusting, Angel," Caine told her.

"Well this beach isn't going to be," Angel declared, as she got to work cleaning the beach. She looked a little bit like a fairy as she flew around the beach picking up trash and organizing it into a pile.

"You don't have to do this," Caine called, "The kids are just gonna mess it up again."

"Yes, but wouldn't your subjects like you a lot better if you and your girlfriend cleaned up the beach for them?" Angel wondered, her arms loaded with trash.

'You just might be onto something," Caine concluded.

"Great," Angel commented, landing in front of Caine, "You levitate all of this into the air, and I'll fly back to my house and get some trash bags."

MAX

Maximum Ride had been waiting at the door with her best "Mom Scowl" since Dylan said he saw Angel making her way home. After a while Angel finally knocked on the door. Max opened it and glared at Angel.

"Hey Max," Angel said happily.

"Hey, Angel," Max responded coldly, "What EXACTLY did you do, from the moment you left up until now?"

"Well," Angel retold, "I went down to town hall so I could hang out with Caine, and we talked a little bit. I could tell that he liked me, so I decided to ask him out. He said yes and we decided to go for a walk on the beach, but it was really gross down there so we decided to clean it up. I only came back here because Caine and I needed some garbage bags and I remembered that we had a whole box of them here."

"Well, Caine is just going to have to find some other bags to put his junk in," Max told Angel sternly.

"Oh god, Max, that sounded so wrong!" The Gasman exclaimed from another room.

"Shut up, Gazzy!" Max yelled, "I'm trying to lecture Angel!"

"Well, don't waste your breath, because I'm not listening!" Angel announced huffily.

"Well, you better listen to this," Max began angrily, "Your new curfew is nine o'clock pm, and it's 9:30!"

Angel's eyes flew to the analog clock on the wall only to discover that Max was right.

"You can't keep me from seeing my boyfriend!" Angel declared, "I have mind control, remember?"

"Yep, you're right," Max told Angel, "Between 9:00 am and 9:00 pm I can't keep you from seeing Caine, and yes, you do have mind control. That doesn't mean you can do whatever you want though. I don't want to have to do this, but if you try to leave this house after your curfew every single member of the flock will try and stop you. You can mind control one of us, but not all of us."

"Isn't that a little harsh?" Angel wondered.

"Yeah, it is," Max answered, "But I'm just trying to keep you from ending up like Diana."

"What, alone and miserable?" Angel asked, "Because that's how I'm going to feel if you keep me apart from Caine."

"Well, you can add pregnant to that list if I don't," Max said with stone cold seriousness in her voice.

CAINE

The king stood alone on the beach with a giant ball of garbage floating over his head. He had waited there, like an idiot, for half an hour waiting for Angel to come back with the garbage bags. The sky had darkened and Caine was getting tired of holding the giant ball of crap. He let his hands fall to his sides in romantic defeat. Most of the trash rained down on his and landed on the beach. Caine didn't really care. He'd gotten used to feeling like garbage.

His mother, Connie made him feel like garbage when she gave him up at birth, but not Sam. Diana, made him feel like garbage when she insulted him for a year then left him to leave under the leadership of Sam, who Caine knew she'd always liked better. Sam made him feel like garbage when he got all of the attention and adoration from EVERYONE while Caine got all of the hate. Albert made him feel like garbage because Caine knew, deep down, that he was the one who was truly in charge. Now, Angel made him feel like garbage when she played with his emotions by asking him out and then ditching him on the beach.

Caine heard the faint sound of somebody very light walking across the sand.

"Nice job putting on all of the garbage in a pile," Penny taunted.

"Go away Penny," Caine commanded, "I'm really not in the mood for you right now."

"You're never in the mood for me, Caine," Penny told the king, as she joined him in the pile of trash.

"Yeah, pretty much," Caine agreed.

"It's funny, because I feel right at home out here," Penny stated, "You know, in the trash."

"Yeah, same here," Caine admitted.

"It's mostly you who does it for me," Penny said with acid in her voice. Caine figured that she was trying to make him feel guilty. It wasn't working.

"It's Sam for me," Caine confessed.

"You mean it WAS Sam," Penny corrected, "I know who it really is know."

"Who?" Caine wondered.

"Oh, please!" Penny exclaimed, "It's been the same person ever since you fell from power. The whole time you just wanted her to love you! You just wanted her to stop treating you like some sick freak!"

"Shut up, Penny!" Caine ordered.

"No! I'm done being the quiet girl!" Penny shouted.

"So you're going to be the crazy girl?" Caine wondered.

"Yeah, I am!" Penny declared, "Because people notice the crazy girl! People know the crazy girl's name! The crazy girl can get what she wants! People fear the crazy girl!"

"You want to be feared?" Caine asked skeptically.

"Yes, and for the same reason you want to be feared," Penny responded.

"And what reason is that?" Caine inquired.

"Everybody hates us," Penny answered, "And when everybody hates you, control is the closest thing that you can get to love, and you of all people know that fear and control go hand in hand."


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Thanks a billion for reading ten whole chapters of this fanfic! Just a little heads up, these next couple of chapters are going to be based on a very popular fairy tale. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to guess it, so I'm not gonna tell you which one it is yet.**

ANGEL

Angel sat in by the door waiting for the clock to strike nine. In exactly fourteen minutes and three seconds, she'd be able to see Caine again and explain why she'd left him on the beach last night. She hoped he'd believe her. What if he didn't and he hated her for life? Was Angel's first relationship already over? It hadn't even lasted 24 hours!

Suddenly, Nudge and Gazzy came barreling down the stairs, covered in dirt.

"Oh my god, Angel! We are soooo sorry! Super, super, super sorry!" Nudge apologized, "I don't think there's any possible way we could be sorrier!"

Angel peered into Nudge and Gazzy's minds to piece together what had just happened. She could visualize every second of it, since the memories were still fresh in their mind. Nudge had offered to teach Gazzy how to break dance, which Gazzy had apparently wanted to learn how to do for a while now. They had chosen to dance in Angel and the Gasman's room since it was bigger than Nudge's. Gazzy and Angel's room had a small potted tree that had died since nobody had thought to water it since the FAYZ began. It was going to get in the way of their dancing so The Gasman suggested that they should just throw it away. Nudge didn't let him do that, since it wasn't theirs to throw away and she thought it was cute. Eventually, the two of them decided that they should put the little tree on Angel's bed so it didn't get knocked over. Just as they were about to begin the lesson, Iggy announced that he had made Kool Aid. Angel remembered how excited the flock had been to discover the packets of black cherry flavoring somebody had wedged between Iggy's box spring and mattress. None of them had tasted anything sweet since they'd gotten to the FAYZ, so none of them felt any guilt about drinking somebody's secret stash of Kool Aid.

Nudge and Gazzy had been particularly excited about break dancing so they brought their Kool Aid up into Gazzy and Angel's room with them. They had set their glasses on Angel's bed, propped up against the tree so that they wouldn't fall down. After an hour, Gazzy had mastered all of Nudge's dance moves. Feeling confident, Gazzy decided that he could do the same moves in the air. He technically could, but not without knocking over the dead tree and both glasses of dark red, almost burgundy Kool Aid. The whole bed was covered in dirt from the tree and sticky juice. The two of them had tried to clean it up, but it had just turned into a dirt fight.

"You guys go wash off in the ocean, you'll just get the room dirtier if you try and clean it up now," Angel told them, "I'll start cleaning."

Gazzy flew off to the beach, but Nudge stayed behind to chat.

"Thank you, thank you, and thank you!" Nudge exclaimed, "A jerk would've just gone and hung out with Caine the Royal Pain. That's what Max calls him, not me! She doesn't think that you even care about the flock anymore, but I told her that wasn't true. I don't think she believed me, though. Oh well, we'll show her! If you clean this room before you go hang out with him, that's a pretty good way to show you care about us."

"Just go clean off, Nudge," Angel instructed kindly, "I'll start cleaning."

PENNY

Penny's sources, which were Taylor and her own obsessive tendencies, told her that Angel had yet to apologize to Caine and he was seriously angsty about it. If Penny was going to execute her twistedly genius plan, she would need Caine to be head over heels for Angel. Penny knew good and well that she couldn't control Caine's feelings, but she could play matchmaker pretty well.

That's why Penny was making her way down to Angel's house. She had been avoiding Angel ever since she had made up her plan because of Angel's mind control powers. Now, Penny had another plan, designed solely to keep her first plan a secret. Penny's new plan was to listen to her iPod, which Taylor took to the island almost weekly so that it could be charged in exchange for visions of Sam Temple, and focus all of her attention on the music.

Now, as she stood outside of Angel's house, Penny popped in her ear buds and knocked on the door.

The oldest, and most hostile, member of the flock opened the door and glared down at Penny.

"What do want?" she asked agitatedly.

"I just want to see Angel," Penny answered, feigning as much innocence as she possibly could. She couldn't see herself, but she was pretty sure that she looked adorable.

"She's busy," Max responded sternly.

"Doing what?" Penny wondered.

"Cleaning her room," Max answered, "Now go away."

"I will, if you just tell her this," Penny replied, "Caine's having a party and he REALLY wants her to come."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll tell her," Max replied, "Now leave."

"Fine," Penny muttered as Max slammed the door in her face.

CAINE

It was the middle of the day and kids in every corner of Perdido beach were outside, having fun. Well, the FAYZ version of fun. Unfortunately for Caine, the town hall was not located in a corner and he was a teenager. That's why Caine Soren was inside, being pissy.

There was a knock on the door. Caine first thought was go call out Angel's name, but the knock was top loud to be hers. Everything about her was dainty, even the way she knocked on a door. It could've been Diana, but that no longer filled him with excitement. He dreaded another argument with her. She was still gorgeous, and he was pretty sure that he'd always some sort of feelings for her, but Angel was right. They'd chosen completely different lives, and the closest thing he would be able get to a relationship with her would be tedious baby drama.

"Who is it?" Caine called.

"The crazy girl," Penny answered dryly, "Can you let me in?"

"Can I? Yes. Will I? No," Caine told her.

"Alright, I won't help you set up your party, then," Penny shouted through the door.

"I'm not having a party, Penny," Caine yelled.

"Well I told Angel you were," Penny responded loudly.

"Why?!" Caine asked.

"Because throwing a party just so you can hang out with a girl is totally romantic," Penny explained at the top of her lungs.

"Well, I don't really want to be romantic with somebody who ditched me on the beach!" Caine protested.

"Yes, you obviously do, since you were walking on the beach with her in the first place!" Penny pointed out.

"Well, she obviously doesn't like me, so why should I even try?" Caine wondered loudly.

"Diana obviously didn't like you either but you still tried with her!" Penny shouted.

"That sounded so wrong!" Caine exclaimed.

"Well, wasn't it so wrong?" Penny asked.

"It sure didn't feel wrong!" Caine said, regretting it almost instantly.

"Oh my god, you pervert!" Penny cried, "You're right. There's really no hope for you and Angel. You're still obsessed with Diana!"

"I am not!" Caine denied.

"Are you kidding? I bet you've got a little tattoo that says "Property of Diana Ladris," right on your-"

"I DO NOT!" Caine cut her off furiously.

"Then prove it!" Penny challenged.

"What?!" Caine wondered disgustedly. He could faintly hear Penny giggling through the door.

"Calm down, Caine-y, you don't have to prove it that way," Penny told him in a dementedly sweet way.

Caine let out a sigh of relief.

"But you could," Penny added in a voice that she considered flirtatious and Caine considered creepy.

"What's my other option?" Caine wondered uneasily.

"Try and get Angel back," Penny stated, "She's a sweet little priss. She probably never even wanted to stand you up and it's all some big misunderstanding."

"Alright," Caine began, "We can throw her the stupid party."

"Woohoo, Caine grew a pair," Penny said unenthusiastically, "Now can you let me in, or are we gonna plan this whole damn party yelling through the door?"

MAX

Angel had spent the first half of the day cleaning her room with Nudge and The Gasman. Max had been able to hear them laughing and joking around the whole time. What she hadn't heard was anything related to Caine Soren. If only Max could find a way to keep it like that.

It had been a couple of hours, and Angel was destined to be done soon. Then she'd run off to go do who knows what with Caine the Royal Pain. Then again, if Angel had something else to clean, she wouldn't be able to spend time with him. He was probably already mad at her for leaving him on the beach the night before. So, if she ignored him for the rest of the day, and then didn't come to his party he'd probably be mad enough to break up with her.

Max was totally aware that her plan was pretty mean, but Max knew that it would be meaner to let the arrogant little jerk wad take advantage of Angel and break her innocent little heart. Max also knew that she probably should've put a little more thought into her plan before deciding to go through with it, but Max wasn't a very thinky person. She was pretty good at destroying things, though. That talent was what made her able to turn the living room into a disaster zone in the ten minutes it took for Angel, Nudge, and The Gasman to come downstairs.

"Oh my god, what happened here?" Nudge wondered.

"Uh…" Max began awkwardly. She quickly began to think about Fang, which was her little trick for keeping Angel out of her mind, "A whole bunch of crazy FAYZ kids came in here and tried to kill me. There was a hell of a lot of them, so they were pretty hard to fight off and the fight ended up making a huge mess. I still, managed to teach every last one of them a lesson, even that guy with those powers. Can you guys help me clean up?"

"Sure!" Angel chirped, seeming eager to please.

"I think that you and The Ange can handle this one, Max," The Gasman told her.

"Yeah, I'm with Gazzy on this one," Nudge agreed uneasily.

"That's cool, go out and have fun! The FAYZ is calling your name!" Max announced happily, practically shoving Nudge and Gazzy out the door. With only the two of them cleaning, Max and Angel would be busy until nine o'clock.


	11. Chapter 11

EDILIO

Edilio Escobar was walking through Perdido Beach with Dekka Talent, Sam Temple, and Diana Ladris. All four friends carried one pitcher of icy ocean water in each hand. For some reason, Diana had woken up extremely determined to read Angel's powers. Edilio wanted to ask her why, but he didn't want to make her angry. He didn't like to admit it, but Edilio had always been a little bit scared of Diana. Yeah, she was pretty, but he had never really been "turned on" by her. From the moment Edilio had first met her, he'd been intimidated by her sharp tongue, psychotic clique, and the way that she'd seemed so heartless. On top of that, the idea of her trying to seduce him into doing her bidding had made him extremely uncomfortable. After he got to know her, he realized she wasn't as cruel he'd presumed her to be. Now he feared her for a totally different reason: hormones.

"Come on, guys," Diana pleaded impatiently, "We need to get to Angel's house before the water warms up. Lukewarm water isn't gonna wake me up when I pass out."

Dekka and Sam immediately sped up, so Edilio felt implored to do the same. They were nice, but they didn't usually respond to such small orders so quickly. Did Sam still find her attractive? Why was Dekka so quick to respond? The three of them were a few feet ahead of a smirking Diana, who was slower because of her enlarged belly.

When they finally got to Angel's place, Diana stepped forwards and knocked on the door. Max, the twenty something leader of the bird kids' little band of misfits, was the one to answer.

"Go away, Angel's busy," Max ordered.

"Are you a mind reader too, now?" Diana wondered.

"No, you've just hung out with Angel before," Max answered.

"Well, I'm going to need to do that again," Diana stated defiantly. Then, remembering that her friends were there with her, she added, "All of us are."

"Sorry, but Angel's busy," Max told her.

"Doing what?" Diana wondered. There was definitely some form of emotion in her voice, but Edilio couldn't put a finger on it. She sounded angry and nervous at the same time.

"Cleaning," Max answered gruffly.

For some reason, Diana let out a sigh of relief.

"We could help her out," Edilio offered, "Couldn't we guys?"

Dekka and Sam exchanged uneasy side glances. Diana crossed her arms and gave Edilio a look that said _Seriously? Do you know who I am? I'm Diana Ladris, not a freaking maid. People clean for me, I do NOT clean for them._

"I'll take your silence as a yes," Edilio announced, choosing to ignore his friends' reluctance to clean and leading them inside the flock's temporary home.

PENNY

In a single afternoon, Penny and Caine managed to set up a really cool party. Penny had put the tiny section of her brain that wasn't completely twisted to work in designing the soiree. After making a couple of edits, Caine approved the plan and used his powers to set it up. It had taken up until sunset to put together, but had required little to no effort on either of their parts.

When Penny said that the party needed a theme, Caine had rolled his eyes and told her that he didn't care. Penny did, though, so she proceeded to bug him until he chose one. It took fifteen minutes of hardcore whining and begging, but he settled on "Royal Ball." He was a king, after all.

They stood back and reveled in the glory of their creation. The road had been cleared of debris and covered in sixteen bags of rainbow glitter that Penny had found in an especially crafty person's house. Every streetlight had been covered in royal purple streamers. Each one had a flashlight, powered by batteries from the island, taped to the top. Caine would us his powers to turn them on when it got too dark to see. Over each flashlight was a piece of colored tissue paper which would change the color of their beams. Beneath two tall trees Caine had set up three card tables which Penny had covered with purple wrapping paper and more of the rainbow glitter. On top of the middle table was a small, but decent, speaker system which had been hooked up to Albert's iPod. Caine had paid Albert to be the DJ because he had "job experience" and a variety of different music on his iPod from his time running the McClub. There'd been a large argument between Albert, Penny, and Caine over who had pay Taylor to charge Albert's iPod. Their debate had gotten so heated that Taylor had decided to charge the iPod for free.

"Well, we have the party," Caine stated, "But how are we going to get everybody to come?"

"We've had half the FAYZ waiting around the corner since we started setting up," Penny reminded him, "The second we tell them they can come, they'll be here."

"Is Angel there?" Caine wondered.

"If she's not, I'll bring her down here," Penny responded.

"Alright, but don't hurt her," Caine instructed.

"Fine," Penny groaned, pulling out her iPod and setting off in the direction of Angel's house.

"Chop! Chop!" Caine announced dramatically with the corresponding hand clap gesture, "I want this party in full swing by the time that Angel gets here!"

Jealousy stabbed through Penny as she walked away. Caine would never throw a party like this for her.

"C'mon people," Caine shouted, "Let's get it started!"

Seconds later, the Black Eyed Peas song of the same title filled the town at top volume.

ANGEL

Angel had been cleaning the living room all day. Max had tried helping her out for the first fifteen minutes, but every time Max attempted to clean something she ended up breaking it. Angel told Max that she didn't have to clean, which she seemed relieved about. Still, Max must've felt bad about leaving Angel to do all the work herself because she brought a huge plate of fish. It would've been a kind gesture if Max hadn't spilled the entire plate on the floor, giving Angel even more to clean. Luckily, Angel hadn't been forced to do all the cleaning by herself after that. Edilio, Dekka, and Sam had come over and given her some help. Diana came too, but she hadn't done much cleaning. Unless sitting there reading a magazine was considered cleaning. Still, the others had been a huge help until Max had accidentally driven them all out. Angel had requested a broom, and Max had agreed to go get it. When she came back into the room Sam made a relatively sexist comment which sent both her and Dekka over the edge. The three of them got into heated argument about women's rights. Somehow the debate turned into an argument over which gender would win in a fight. That provoked Dekka to snatch the broom out of Max's hand and hit Sam over the head with it. HARD. Diana suggested that Sam could have a concussion, so his friends carried him down to see a girl named Dahra Baidoo, who Caine had chosen as the FAYZ's doctor long ago. None of them returned, leaving Angel to clean alone.

Cleaning had been hard work, but Angel had put up with it. She was convinced that it would show how responsible she was and that she wouldn't ditch the flock, even in their biggest messes. Angel was sure that if she could prove this, Max would get rid of her crazy curfew and let Angel go outside and investigate the extremely loud music that had been blaring since sundown.

Angel picked up the final piece of trash, a ripped out page of a book, and tossed into her bulging trash bag. She carefully lugged the big, black, plastic bag into the corner and gently leaned it up against the other three trash bags she'd already filled. Each bag was more engorged with garbage than the last. Angel took extra care when tying her final garbage bag, so that it didn't spill. If she had to pick up one more piece of trash, Angel would go crazy and most likely explode.

"MAAAAAAX! I'M FINISHED!" Angel called happily.

Max walked down stairs and into the living room with a big smile on her face.

"That's great, Angel," Max complimented. There was a demeaning tone to her voice, but Angel chose not to call her out on it.

"Thank you, Max," Angel responded sweetly, hitting Max with her attempt at Nudge's puppy dog eyes.

"Now you can come upstairs for family game night!" Max exclaimed happily.

"That sounds great and all," Angel began, "But, personally I was thinking-"

"That you were to cool for family game night?" Max wondered angrily, "Thought that you could ditch us and go down to Caine the Royal Pain's party?"

"Caine's throwing a party?" Angel asked, surprised, "Is that where that music's been coming from?"

Max laughed awkwardly and quickly said, "No! What music? What party? What Caine?"

"You know, the music that's been playing since sundown! The party you never told me about! MY BOYFRIEND!" Angel shouted.

"AAARGH!" Max groaned, "QUIT CALLING THAT IDIOT YOUR BOYFRIEND!"

"Why not? That's what he is, MY BOYFRIEND! I like him and he likes me, and there's nothing that YOU can do about!" Angel shouted, "King Caine Soren is my BOYFRIEND! Boyfriend! Boyfriend! Boyfriend!"

"Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!" Max screamed.

"Make me!" Angel challenged, with her hands on her hips.

"Oh, I'll make you, alright!" Max roared.

She grabbed Angel by her long blonde hair and dragged her down the hall. Angel tried to struggle and get free, but there was no hope. Max's iron grip was too tight. Max held open the door to Angel's room and shoved her in. Angel ran to the exit as fast as she could, but it wasn't fast enough. The door slammed in her face. She tried to open it, but Max was leaning up against it.

"Yo! Flock, get out here!" Max called, "We're gonna finish up family game night outside of Angel's room, so she can't break curfew."

It was hopeless. Angel was never going to be able to get to Caine's party. There were probably a lot of things she could've done about the situation, but for the moment Angel could only manage to do one thing. She sat down on the floor and cried.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: 12 is my favorite number, so I made this a very special chapter. Along with it being the second Cinderella chapter, there are two firsts. (Don't worry, neither of them is that kind of first.) Thanks again for reading! Please enjoy and review.**

ANGEL

Angel was crying her heart out when she heard a loud tap at her window. She jumped into the air and flew over to the window. Her heart best fast, powered by the hope that Caine would be on the other side, using his levitation to float in mid-air. When she got to her window, she didn't see anyone on the other side. One of the stones from the narrow pit of rocks that surrounded her house flew at the window pane and made a tiny crack in the glass. Angel did a face palm. Caine was obviously throwing rocks at her window. And he thought that he wasn't romantic!

Suddenly, a larger rock crashed through the window, missing her face by less than an inch. Okay, maybe he wasn't that romantic. Angel hovered a couple of inches off the floor, so she didn't step on shettered glass. She looked through the broken window and onto the ground. She had expected Caine to be standing there with a dozen roses or something. Instead, she didn't see anyone.

"I'm in the tree, you little twit!" a girl, who was definitely not Caine, shouted. It made Angel jump, which caused her to hit her head on the ceiling.

Angel looked into the giant tree a few feet away from her window. She spotted a vaguely familiar looking Asian girl, clinging to a tree branch that was almost as wide around as she was. The girl had music playing on an iPod which she was focusing all of her brain power on. Angel was pretty sure that was a tactic to keep her innermost thoughts private from Angel, and in turn Caine. Even though he was their leader, not many of the FAYZ kids trusted him.

"Look, you seem pretty stupid for a mind reader, so I'll explain this to you as clearly as possible," the girl began, "You're free! Jump! Fly! Vamoose! Whatever you do, GET ME OUTTA THIS TREE!"

Angel flew back towards the left corner of the room where the wall met the ceiling and quickly turned around to gain speed. She folded in her wings and dove through the broken window. A few shards of glass fell on her body like rain as she torpedoed out into the warm California night. She swooped around the yard and scooped the frail girl out of the tree. She set the girl down on the cool, green grass and carefully landed beside her.

"Sorry it took so long for me to get your attention," the girl apologized halfheartedly, "I totally suck at climbing trees."

"It's cool," Angel replied kindly, "I just want to know how you knew I was locked in my room. You have to tell me yourself, since you're concentrating on your music too hard for me to read your mind."

"Sorry, I just don't want you to tell King Caine as my deepest darkest secrets," the girl responded, spitting out Caine's title with unmeasurable malice.

"I understand," Angel told her, "Now, how did you know that Max wouldn't let you in?"

"First of all, Taylor's told everybody that you bird freaks are anti-social weirdoes who never let anybody in your house. Secondly, I came by earlier to invite you to Caine's party and Max told me to go away," Penny answered, "Caine really wanted me to come and get you, so I knew I'd have to break you out somehow. I was walking around the house looking for somewhere to sneak in when I heard you crying in your room. I noticed your rock pit and tried to break your window with the rocks, but I was having a hard time hitting your window from the ground. Yeah, I'm seriously bad at sports. I was about to give up and tell Caine you had died or something, when I noticed the tree. If I sat in the branches it would put me close enough to the window or a clear shot. So, I stuffed my pockets with rocks and tried to climb the tree. That took a while, and I kind of forgot how to get down, but it worked."

"Good for you, um…" Angel trailed off. She still hadn't asked the girl her name.

"Penny," the girl answered.

"You're Penny? YOU?" Angel asked, "I mean, I saw you once before, but I forgot what you looked like. Don't take this the wrong way, but I kind of assumed you were somebody else since you weren't trying to hurt me."

"Meh, I'm not offended. I probably would've if Caine hadn't told me not to," Penny responded casually.

"I'm gonna pretend like that didn't scare me," Angel replied, then, she asked, "Why did you lock Caine and me in the town hall?"

"I was trying to set you up," Penny answered.

"Why?" Angel asked.

"Because Caine's my friend, and he told me that he liked you," Penny explained.

"He did?" Angel wondered excitedly.

"Well, he never really told me, but he totally implied it," Penny corrected herself.

Angel took a deep breath and said, "Penny, there's no easy way to say this, but Caine kind of hates you."

"Really? He must be warming up to me," Penny replied sincerely, "Not sure why, since I kind of hate him too."

"But I thought you said you two were friends," Angel stated.

"Oh, we are," Penny confirmed, "We're hate-friends. Friends that hate each other."

"So why are you here now?" Angel asked.

"To get you ready for the ball," she answered, taking off her hot pink backpack and holding it out to Angel.

"Thanks," Angel said nervously.

Penny giggled as she carefully unzipped the backpack. Angel held it open, away from her face, and was relieved to find that it was full of clothes, and not something dangerous. Angel pulled out the dress it had a sweetheart neckline and a somewhat poufy skirt that went down to Angel's knees. Beneath the dress was a pair of shoes. The heels were made out of clear plastic and another strip of a similar material stretched across her arches and held the shoes on. From a distance, the shoes looked completely transparent.

"I'm gonna go back inside and change," Angel told Penny.

She flew through the open window, pulled down the blinds, and changed as quickly as she possibly could. Then she lifted the blinds and flew down to the yard where Penny was waiting for her.

"Okay, now take me up," Penny ordered.

Angel looked at her with confusion. Penny stopped focusing on her music for a second to mentally explain her plan to Angel. Penny would hang out in Angel's room until the party was over, so that if somebody came in Penny could use her powers of illusion to make herself look and sound like Angel.

"That's a great plan!" Angel exclaimed.

"Then take me up," Penny instructed impatiently.

Angel lifted Penny by her arms and carried her up to the window. It was an extremely easy task, because all of the bird kids had above average strength and Penny was skinnier than the average FAYZ kid. Angel carefully set her down the windowsill and helped her inside the room.

_Thanks for doing this, _Angel mentally told Penny. She didn't want to speak out loud, in fear of somebody in the hallway hearing her. Penny didn't acknowledge the message, just sat down on the bed and turned up her music, which already been playing pretty loudly to drown out the party's music.

Angel waved goodbye, and flew off into the fragrant night air. It only took a few minutes for Angel to get there. She landed about a block away from the party to avoid drawing too much attention to herself. She slipped into the crowd, and began searching for Caine.

DIANA

Diana stood still in a crowd of dancing children. All of her old dance moves would look extremely disturbing now that she was pregnant. So, she just stood there, with nobody but her unborn child to talk to.

"Why did I even come to this thing?" she muttered under her breath.

She started making her way out of the giant crowd when the music stopped. Instantly people started yelling angrily. Diana turned around to see what was going on.

Caine was standing on top of the right end of Albert's DJ system, trying to turn on a microphone. Diana secretly hoped that he'd slip on glitter and fall on his face. That would be funny. Eventually, Caine turned on the microphone and it made that loud screeching noise that never fails to make everyone scream. It was kind of funny, but not slipping on glitter funny.

Caine cleared his throat loudly into the microphone, which instantly made the crowd shut up.

"First of all," Caine began, "I'd like to apologize for interrupting the party. Thank you all for coming. Albert's going to turn the music back on when I'm done speaking, don't worry."

Diana was tempted to yell, "Get of the stage, loser! Nobody wants to hear you brag!" but she decided against it.

"Now, I'll try and make this quick," Caine told the audience.

_No you won't, _Diana thought sourly.

"You may not know this, but I'm really bad with girls," Caine announced humbly. Then he chuckled and said, "That's right, even King Caine has flaws. Yeah, I have less than most people have, but nobody's perfect."

Diana rolled her eyes and groaned. Why was he even doing this?

"Look, enough about me. This is about somebody else," Caine continued, "Somebody amazing. She's really pretty and she totally gets me, but apparently I don't get her, because I don't think she cares about me anymore."

_You don't think I care about you? Why would you ever think that, darling? _Diana thought, bitterly taunting Caine.

"I don't really know what I did, but I'm really sorry," Caine apologized.

_You don't know what you did? _Diana wondered, _you seriously don't know what you did!?_

"I really hope you'll take me back, because this king is a mess without you as his queen," Caine confessed.

Diana wished that she could've just written that off as cheesy and continued to be bitter, but the truth is she didn't want to. Caine was admitting his feelings for her in front of the entire town. How could she not feel anything, much less be mad at him? This was his idea of an apology, and she was willing to settle for it. She hated to admit it, but she was a mess without him, too.

"If you're willing to give me another chance, could you please come join me on top of this card table?" Caine requested, "It's hardly fit for royalty like us, but it's the best I could get."

Diana started running towards Albert's DJ table as fast as she could. She was almost there when she felt a gust of wind above her, like an owl or something had flown over her head. It wasn't an owl, though. Diana figured that out when Angel landed on the card table next to Caine.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the queen of the FAYZ!" Caine announced, gesturing to Angel.

Angel beamed and looked down upon the throng of children that were (for the most part) cheering. She turned to Caine, and they just looked at each other for a second.

"KISS! KISS! KISS! KISS!" The crowd started cheering.

Caine, not wanting to disappoint his adoring public, used his powers to pull Angel close to him, and planted one right on her lips. Diana just watched. She didn't scream. She didn't cry. She did look bitter, but no more bitter than usual. There wasn't a single physical sign that would betray the fact that, for the first time in her life, Diana Ladris was jealous.


	13. Chapter 13

CAINE

Caine had used the cheers of the crowd as his reference for when to stop kissing Angel. Most people would find kissing in front of a horde of crazy children awkward, but Caine was immune to the pressures of the public. In fact, being on center stage was actually improving his romantic skills. He preferred having an audience to tell him if he was succeeding, rather than one girl who was cryptically signaling her feelings. Also, he was less likely to be rejected in front of a crowd, because no girl wanted to be labeled as the jerk who would embarrass a guy like that.

Still, Caine had been as nervous as hell. What if Angel had laughed at him for being overdressed? He and Albert had been the only ones wearing suits. What if the staples and scotch tape that he'd used to prevent his suit from looking too baggy stopped working? What if he'd said something stupid? What if Angel hadn't come up when he'd asked her?

Luckily, none of that had happened. Everything had worked out, and Caine had kissed Angel until kids in the crowd started yelling things like "Slow down, tiger!" and "Get a room, you stupid freaks!"

Caine reluctantly pulled away from Angel. She smiled at him, and he smiled back. She was really hot. Caine really wanted to…RESPECTFULLY ADORE HER! Yeah, that was a good thing to think. Dating a mind reader was going to be tough.

"So," Angel began awkwardly, with a smile on her face, "Are we gonna get off the table, or just stand here for the rest of the night?"

"Oh, yeah, sure," Caine responded, then he turned to Albert and instructed him to turn the music back on.

"On that romantic note, I'm going to play a slow dance song now," Albert informed everyone emotionlessly. He turned off the microphone, which he had picked up when Caine had dropped it mid-kiss, and turned on Taylor Swift's "Today Was a Fairytale."

"You wanna dance?" Caine asked, extending his hand to Angel.

"Sure," Angel answered happily.

Everything Caine knew about dancing he had learned in gym class. Caine had held out one hand for Angel to hold, and put the other on his waist. Angel put her free hand on his shoulder. Caine wasn't sure if he should try the stupid box step that he was never very good at or just awkwardly sway like most of the couples were doing.

"If something is called "the stupid box step you were never very good at" we probably shouldn't try it," Angel told him.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Caine murmured, looking down at his feet.

Angel started swaying and Caine joined in. Caine lifted his head and looked angel in the eye so he wasn't tempted to look down her shirt, well dress. Angel didn't look disgusted by that thought, since she was probably used to reading the minds of teenage boys. Instead she was smiling at Caine in a way that nobody had ever smiled at him before.

"You look great," Caine complimented. _Really great, _he wanted to add.

"You look great too," Angel responded, "Really great."

DIANA

Diana ran down the street, with tears silently drizzling from her eyes. She hated Caine for being nicer to Angel then he'd ever been to her. She hated Angel for being pretty, kind, well-fed, and not pregnant. Mostly, she hated herself for even caring. She was the one who had left Caine, the one who was over him, the one who had moved on. Why did she care if he dated somebody else?

It was because that somebody else was better than he deserved. He deserved to be sad and alone after all the bad things he'd done to her. Angel was too good for him. He deserved somebody who was just as much of a monster as he was. Somebody like Diana.

Finally, Diana got to Angel's house. She stood on the stoop to catch her breath for a second before ringing the doorbell. It took only one ring for the hot guy with the blonde hair to answer the door.

"Are you crying? What's wrong?" he asked.

He seemed concerned about her, so Diana let the tears flow like nobody was watching.

"King Caine…and…Angel…he called her up…in front of the crowd…and started trying to…it was sick…he had his hands up her skirt…and…it was just too horrible!" Diana said through sobs.

"Wait what!?" the guy wondered, then he turned towards the stairs and yelled, "Max, can you check on Angel?"

"Um, yeah, sure," Max responded, just as loudly if not louder, "But why? I just checked like two minutes ago. She was just sitting on her bed, listening to music."

"Well, you might want to check again, because there's a girl down here who's telling a VERY different story," the hottie shouted back.

"What's she saying?"

"I'm not really sure because she's crying really hard, but I think she's saying that Caine is sexually harassing Angel down at his party."

"He's WHAT!?"

Max flew down the stairs at hyper speed and landed in front of Dylan and Diana.

"Is that true?" Max interrogated Diana.

Diana sniffled and nodded her head.

"Well, I've had a pretty messed up life that makes it hard for me to trust anyone, so I'm gonna go check on Angel one more time," Max told her gruffly, "And if I find out that your lying to us, you're gonna be in for it."

PENNY

Penny was bored to tears. She had listened to music, doodled Caine and Diana in various life threatening situations, brainstormed how she'd kill Angel, fantasized about breaking Caine's heart, fantasized about what could've been with Caine, read the first chapter of Wuthering Heights, entered a potentially deadly state of boredom, and put the book back on the shelf. It was even more boring than lying crippled on the bathroom floor. Nowhere near as miserable, but definitely less exciting. At least Diana had put a DVD player in the bathroom so Penny could watch movies.

Next thing she knew, the doorknob was turning. Penny savored these moments, when she'd make herself look like and sound Angel and brutally insult Max, which would cause the other bird freaks to hate Angel. And if the flock hated Angel, they'd want her out of the house, which would send her running into the arms of the one and only King Caine. It was another amazing plan by Penny.

Penny fired up her powers the second that she saw Max's face.

"Hey, bitch!" She greeted happily.

"Great to see you too, Penny," Diana responded sarcastically, stepping into view. Something was missing from her voice. She sounded sad, out of it.

Penny knew it was hopeless. She stopped using her powers and made a mad dash for the front door. Nobody tried to stop her, but Penny figured they wanted her out as quick as possible. As she ran down the stairs she could hear the flock's conversation.

"Alright, people! Family game night is over!" Max announced.

Everybody cheered about that.

"Now let's go show Caine the Royal Pain what happens when you mess the flock!" Max cried, rallying up the flock.

Everybody cheered about that, too.

ANGEL

Angel was dancing with Caine. She jumped around and shook her hips to the music as she looked deep into his aqua eyes. They were the most expressive part of him. Most people's only signal of how he felt. Right now, they were working in tandem with his thoughts to make Angel feel like royalty. It was perfect…until, Max shot out of the sky at hyper speed and pinned Caine to the ground.

_Why aren't you using your powers?_ Angel asked telepathically.

_She pinned my hands down! _Caine answered with his thoughts.

"Get off of him!" Angel ordered Max, using her mind control to make her listen.

The rest of the flock was just beginning to land.

"Yeah, we all know you'd rather be the one on top of him," Diana insulted, as Dylan, who had been carrying her, set her on the ground.

"Shut up!" Angel began, "I know you lied and said that Caine sexually harassed me! That couldn't be farther from the truth. You only said it because you were jealous of me!"

"God, Max, you ruined my suit," Caine commented, as he dusted himself off, "Wait, what did you say about Diana?"

"That she lied about you sexually harassing me because she was jealous," Angel repeated.

"SHE was jealous?" Caine wondered.

Angel nodded, as Diana mentally cursed her name.

Caine's smirk was smirkier than usual.

"Seriously? You're happy about that?" Diana asked.

"Yep," Caine answered.

"Why?!"

"Karma!"

"Karma?"

"Yep."

"How is this karma?"

"Sam."

"Okay, Mr. One-word-answers, how is me being jealous of Angel anything like you being jealous of Sam? Is she secretly my twin sister? Because I'm pretty sure that even if she was, she'd be the jealous one since the closest thing that she has to a family is this wandering band of bird-people."

"I knew you were into him. And that was six words, well, like, more than that now, but you know, I'm just gonna stop talking."

"Like now, or forever, because I'd love it if you stopped talking forever."

"Right back at you."

"Alright, time to go," Max told Angel, who tried to struggle as she, Fang, Iggy, and Dylan grabbed her by the arms and took off.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION TIME! I just started a forum called Songs of the FAYZ about music that people associate with the GONE series. If you want to come and check it out, that would be awesome. This is the last Cinderella chapter, but not the last chapter. I've got everything all planned out and I can't wait to wrap it all up. Please review. I love to hear your questions, comments, opinions, and anything else. Thanks again for the all the love!**

ANGEL

"So, what's for breakfast?" Angel asked teasingly. The flock hadn't eaten anything but fish since they had arrived in the FAYZ.

Angel's joke was met with cold, judgmental stares instead of laughter.

"Are you guys seriously still mad at me?" Angel wondered.

"No, I'm not mad," Max replied, sounding extremely mad, "Why would I be mad after you broke curfew to go fool around with Caine the Royal Pain?"

"Because he's my boyfriend! Despite what you all seem to think, he hasn't done anything evil this whole time we've been dating!" Angel shouted.

Max opened her mouth to argue, but the only thing Angel heard was a knock on the door.

"I'll get it!" Nudge exclaimed nervously. The last thing that she wanted was another fight.

Standing behind the door was Caine the Royal Pain himself.

"Why the hell are you here?" Max asked, with her voice full of disdain.

"Well, I was coming over to see Angel and I found this on the ground," Caine explained charismatically, holding up one of Angel's shoes, "It must've fallen off when you grabbed her by the limbs and carried her back home."

"My shoe!" Angel exclaimed, running over to Caine.

"Here you go," Caine said, handing Angel her shoe.

"Thanks, sweety," Angel told Caine, blushing.

_Diana never called me sweety,_ Caine thought.

_She may be hotter, but I'm a lot nicer,_ Angel told him mentally.

_You're actually hotter now that she's pregnant, _Caine thought, _I mean she's still beautiful and all, but you definitely turn me on more now._

_I like the beginning, and the end, but I'm not so wild about the middle part, _Angel use her powers to inform him.

_Sorry,_ Caine apologized in his mind,_ I can't really control my thoughts._

_No, it's okay. I was just a little bit jealous._

_Sorry,_ Caine unwillingly apologized again, I_ didn't mean to make you jealous._

_Don't feel bad._

_Well, I kind of do. I don't feel REALLY bad, but I know how much jealousy can hurt._

_Don't worry, I won't try and kill Diana or anything._

_Good._

_Well, I'm hoping that's good._

_C'mon, Angel, I'm not THAT crazy!_

_I knew that, sweety. You just need to find a way to show everybody else._

_Um…We could try and clean up the beach again. Just promise you won't leave me on the beach again._

_I promise. The only reason I didn't come back was because Max made up this stupid curfew the second that I came home. I can't go out after nine pm or before 9 pm now._

_That sucks._

_Only if we follow it._

MAX

"Um…what are you guys doing?" Nudge wondered, "Because you're both just standing there, and it's really awkward. Wait, are you having a mental conversation? What are you talking about? Or is it what are you thinking about? I don't know, but still, what are you think/talking about? Is it dirty!? Is that why you're not answering?"

"It's not anything dirty," Angel reassured her family.

"I don't trust you," Max growled.

"I'm not lying!" Angel exclaimed.

"Yeah, she's not," Caine defended her.

"Well, I'm getting out of here," Max announced, "I can't take the sappiness."

That wasn't all she couldn't take though. Max couldn't take Caine staring at her little Angel with that hungry, longing look in his eyes. Max couldn't take Angel defying her authority. Max couldn't take seeing the rest of the flock sad. Max couldn't take having nothing to eat but measly amounts of fish. Max couldn't take being away from her friends on the REAL island, not this FAYZ island everyone seemed to be obsessed with. There was one thing that Max could stand less then all of those things combined, though. That thing was the hell that its residents called the FAYZ.

Max stormed out the door of her house without explanation. Angel knew why she was leaving. If she didn't completely hate the flock now, Angel could explain why she had left. Max walked a couple of blocks to the houses that the Lake Tramonto kids had been staying in. Max needed to talk to somebody smart, and she figured that anybody who pegged Caine as a bad leader was pretty intelligent.

Max only knew where one of the Lake kids' house was. She knew Diana's temporary address because Angel had told her a while ago. She hadn't expected the house to be so large. It was probably the biggest house in all of Perdido Beach. Max used the ornate knocker that was mounted on the snow white door of Diana. A few seconds later, Diana came to the door wearing baggy grey sweatpants and a black maternity top under a comfy, royal purple bathrobe. She looked good for a starving, pregnant teenager.

"Are you here to beat me up for lying to you?" Diana asked, not sounding as scared as Max thought that she should, "Because I know that I probably deserve a couple of bruises, but it doesn't…yet."

"It? Do you mean your baby?" Max wondered, "And why did you say yet?"

"Yeah, I mean my baby. At least, I hope it's a baby," Diana responded, "It's growing way too fast. I'm starting to think that it might not even be human. Its father was a four bar and I'm a two bar. It was two bar, like, a day after conception."

"What's up with all these bars? Are we phones now?" Max questioned.

"It's just my system for measuring people's mutant powers," Diana explained, "Give me your hand and I'll show you how it works."

"Alright," Max replied as she cautiously extended her hand.

Diana took Max's hand in hers and held it for a few seconds. She was making a focused expression, like it would help her read Max's powers faster. She gripped Max's hand tightly, as to squeeze a power level out of it. It was strange watching somebody put effort into something that seemed so easy. After about five seconds Diana let go of Max's hand.

"So, how many bars am I?" Max inquired.

"Seven," Diana answered, "That's the highest read I've ever gotten."

"Yeah, I'm just awesome like that," Max bragged jokingly.

"If just having wings gives you seven bars Angel's power level is probably off the charts,"  
Diana commented.

"I don't just have wings," Max corrected, "I can fly really fast and breathe underwater, too."

"Oh…that's why it's so high," Diana realized, "I'm no expert; but I'd probably say that your wings give you two bars, the fast flying gives you three more, and the underwater breathing gives you at two more. That's just a wild guess, though. It's not an exact science."

"Oh, and I can also survive really high water pressure," Max recalled.

"Great power," Diana said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Seriously? You're talking about sucky powers?" Max wondered disapprovingly.

"Hey, I never said mine wasn't worse," Diana responded, "Now why did you come over here?"

"I want out," Max told her seriously.

"And you don't think I do? I'd love to get to a doctor who could actually deliver my baby," Diana replied, "No matter what it turns out to be, I'd rather not die giving birth to it."

"So, get your lake friends and we'll make a plan," Max instructed.

"Seriously, we've been trapped in here for almost a year now. If there was a way out we would've found by now," Diana told her, "We're trapped."

"C'mon, Diana! Nothing ventured, nothing gained," Max encouraged, "A little planning never hurt anyone."

"Fine," Diana gave in, "I'll go get Dekka and the guys. They're in the basement playing airless air hockey."

DEKKA

Dekka, Sam, Edilio, Diana, and Max were hanging out in Diana's luxurious basement trying to think of a plan to get out of the FAYZ. They'd been at it for at least twenty minutes already, but so far they hadn't come up with anything good.

"Is there any way to penetrate the wall?" Max asked, "Maybe somebody could shoot it and make a hole in it."

Dekka would never admit it aloud, but she thought that Max was smoking hot. She was a total badass who was really pretty without ever trying. Still, it wasn't like Dekka was crushing on her. Max was way older than her and probably straight. On top of all that, Dekka was still trying to get over Brianna. Dekka's feelings for Max were similar to ones she had for Beyoncé. Dekka would want to date them both if they were her age and sexuality, but she could live with the fact they were unreachable.

"That's a really great idea, but it's too risky," Edilio told Max as nicely as he could, "The bullet could ricochet off the wall and hit the shooter. I don't wanna risk somebody's life for a plan that might not even work."

"Good idea, though, Max" Dekka reassured Max.

"Looks like Dekka's got another girl crush," Diana teased.

Dekka gave Diana her best death stare. Diana had figured out that Dekka was a lesbian back at Coates. She'd given Dekka hell for it, but she'd kept the secret better than Dekka had thought she would. Sam also knew her secret since they were really close, maybe even best friends. Dekka wasn't sure if Edilio knew or not. It didn't bug Dekka if he did, since he was against prejudice of all types. She just didn't want to make Max uncomfortable.

"Wait, are you lesbian?" Max asked Dekka.

"Yeah," Dekka responded.

"Um…are you…" Max began awkwardly.

"Well, I think your hot, that's all," Dekka admitted.

Max looked at her uncomfortably.

"Don't blame me," Dekka told her in her most friendly voice, "I like badass chicks."

"Well, I'm flattered, but I'm straight," Max told her.

"I figured," Dekka responded, "Plus, you're like eight years older than me, or something. It's not like I wanna date you, I just think you're attractive."

"Yeah, she's too into the Breeze to actually have a crush on anybody else," Diana taunted.

"Shut up!" Dekka ordered.

"Calm down, I'm just teasing," Diana replied with a seductive smirk. Dekka really wished that Diana's smile hadn't turned her on, but none of her wishes ever seemed to come true.

"I wish Astrid was here," Sam said longingly, "She would've come up with an awesome plan."

"And then we would've slept together, and gotten married, and had five children who were even bigger weenies than us," Diana mocked in her best boy voice, which wasn't very good.

"Who the hell is Astrid?" Max asked.

"Sam's bitchy EX-girlfriend," Diana told Max. She had put the emphasis on the ex to bug Sam.

Sam rolled his eyes and playfully punched her in the shoulder.

"She wasn't a bitch," Sam corrected, "Diana's just jealous because I love Astrid, not her."

"Oh puh-lease, Sammy! That ship has sailed!" Diana exclaimed, "I never should've told you about that little crush I had on you back when the FAYZ first started."

"Let's get back on topic, people," Max ordered, "Where would you find this Astrid chick?"

"Nobody knows," Edilio replied, "She didn't come to the lake with us, and she's not here in Perdido Beach either."

"She could be anywhere," Dekka added, "The forest, the lake-"

"A coyote's stomach," Diana interrupted.

"You take that back!" Sam shouted.

"What? That's probably what happened," Diana responded, totally unfazed by Sam's outburst, "She probably wandered into the desert thinking that she could survive on her own and got gobbled up by Pack Leader the seventh."

"That would never happen! Astrid's not that stupid!" Sam exclaimed.

"Yeah, she is," Diana corrected, "I didn't think that she was, but apparently I was wrong."

"What do you mean?" Edilio wondered.

"What I mean is that Astrid Ellison has only three tools for survival," Diana explained, "One of them was you, Sam. You could protect her and her precious Petey from anything with your magical laser hands. Well, you could until she threw Little Pete out of a window and dumped your sorry butt. Her second tool was her ability to manipulate people. But, she threw that one of her handy dandy survival toolbox when she decided that she'd rather rough it in the wild than go to either of the two places that were loaded with playable people. Her last weapon was her mind, but she's obviously lost that one too."

"Leave Astrid alone!" Sam ordered pathetically.

"Silly Sam, I never leave anybody alone," Diana reminded him in a demeaning voice. Then, in a more serious tone, she added, "My theory is that she felt so guilty about murdering her little brother that she found a beautiful, secluded location to lie down and wait for death."

"NO! SHE DIDN'T!" Sam yelled. He sounded like he was on the brink of tears.

"I wouldn't put it past her," Diana responded, "There was a time when I felt exactly the same way. The only reason that I'm still here today is because Caine kept refusing to kill me and saving my life."

"You asked him to kill you?" a very concerned Edilio asked.

"You stay out of my personal life and I'll stay out of yours," Diana responded defensively, "You mind your own business, or I'll have to look into why you're the only guy over the age of ten that I haven't caught staring at me."

"I have no idea what you're talking about! I stare at you all the time!" Edilio declared awkwardly, "Well, not all the time, but you know, like a normal amount!"

"Whoa, guys, I'm sorry," Max apologized, "I had no idea that asking who Astrid was would lead to all this."


	15. Chapter 15

MAX

Maximum Ride had no trouble finding Astrid. She'd gotten a picture of her from Sam and shown it to Dylan. Dylan had then used his powers to see her deep within the woods. Next, Max used her own powers to fly over to her in less than a minute.

When Max touched down in the woods she was shocked by the girl that she saw. The Astrid in the picture had blonde shoulder length hair, a white blouse, and a necklace with a tiny silver cross on it. She had looked like one of those pretty blonde girls who was too much of a sissy to do anything for herself. Now, she looked like the same human that was in the picture, but a completely different person. Max could tell that she'd hacked her hair off with a knife, since it's something that Max had done countless times. She also noticed the shotgun that Astrid was taking out and aiming at her.

"Don't come any closer or I'll shoot!" Astrid shouted.

"Calm down, I'm not gonna hurt you," Max reassured Astrid.

Max showed her the palms of her hands so Astrid could see that she wasn't carrying any weapons.

"Put your hands down!" Astrid ordered, cocking the gun.

"Oh sorry, I forgot that's how powers work here," Max apologized.

"Here?" Astrid inquired, "You're not from the FAYZ are you?"

"No, I'm not," Max told her, "I live on an island that might be in the future. I'm not really sure."

"How did you get here?" Astrid asked authoritatively.

"I was flying along and our world started disappearing," Max explained, "We were flying through blackness for a while until we suddenly appeared in Hell on Earth."

"Did it hurt? Were there faint green lights? Did it feel scary? Did a demonic voice say "come I have need of you?" Did you feel any pain?" Astrid interrogated frantically.

"Um…no," Max answered, "But I could ask the others."

"Others? What others?" Astrid wondered.

"Me, Fang, Dylan, and Iggy are all 23. Nudge is 21, The Gasman in 17, and Angel is 15," Max listed.

"Technically, you should say Fang, Dylan, Iggy, and I are all 23," Astrid corrected, "Do you all have wings?"

"Yep," Max answered.

"Can all of you fly that fast?" Astrid inquired.

"Nope, that's just one of my powers," Max clarified.

"Are you saying that you have multiple powers?" Astrid asked.

"Yes! We all have wings and at least one power! Why is it so hard for you FAYZ kids to comprehend that?" Max wondered loudly.

"No, I find it easy to comprehend," Astrid stated, "My brother, Pete, had limitless powers. Unfortunately he couldn't survive the FAYZ."

"Because you threw him out of a window," Max added.

"Who told you about that?" Astrid asked, sounding mortified.

"Sam and Diana were-"

"Sam? Diana? Sam AND Diana?"

"Uh, yeah. Can I finish now?"

"I should've known that this would've happened! She always had her eye on my Sam! ALWAYS! That's why she hated me so much! But, still, how could Caine let this happen? Unless she dumped Caine for Sam, which is an idiotic move because it's basically encouraging him to try and kill Sam again. Wait! No! Sam and Diana must be at Lake Tramonto. Caine is at Perdido Beach. Oh, no! They are together! That's why Sam hasn't come looking for me yet!"

"Calm down," Max instructed, "Sam's not dating Diana."

"Oh," Astrid replied, blushing.

She took a couple of deep breaths, waited for her face to stop looking like somebody had dyed it red.

"So, I'm assuming that you're staying at the lake?" Astrid asked awkwardly.

"Sorry, Astrid, but the correct answer was "Love-Caine-or-Die Town,"" Max said in her best game show host voice, "No new car for you!"

"If you're staying in Perdido Beach then why are Sam and Diana there?" Astrid wondered, ignoring Max's joke.

"Caine invited Diana back to Perdido Beach to read our power levels," Max explained, "Sam, Edilio, and Dekka came with her for some reason."

"That's interesting," Astrid commented, "Now why did you come find me?"

"Sam thought you'd have a plan to get out of this place," Max answered.

"My plans to escape the FAYZ are terrible," Astrid stated, "My last one had one step: kill my autistic little brother.

ANGEL

Angel and Caine had finished cleaning up the beach. Right as they were done, Penny ran out with picnic basket and blanket. When she first came over Caine was worried that she wanted to have lunch with them. Both he and Angel were pleasantly surprised when Penny handed them the picnic basket and ran off.

"You know, I think I'm beginning to like that girl," Angel commented as she sipped on a fancy juice drink that she'd hadn't seen or heard of before this picnic.

"I wish she was always like this," Caine replied, smirking at Angel.

"The beach looks great, doesn't it?" Angel asked.

"Definitely," Caine agreed, "Thanks for not abandoning me this time."

"You're welcome, sweety," Angel replied.

"I'm assuming that you like the food," Caine stated.

Angel had already eaten over half the contents of Penny's extremely large, overstuffed picnic basket.

"Bird kids have a higher metabolism than normal humans do," Angel explained.

"Then the food situation here must suck for you," Caine realized, "From now on, I'll have Taylor go down to the island everyday so that she can get you and the flock all the food that they want."

"Thank you so much," Angel responded.

She leaned over and gave Caine a hug. When the two of them broke their embrace Caine started laughing. Angel didn't need to ask why. Caine's mind held all the answers. Angel looked down at her crotch and laughed too.

When she had leaned forwards to hug Caine she had forgotten about the unwrapped Hostess cupcake that had been sitting there. It had been sitting in the sun long enough for its frosting to melt become and sticky enough to leave an awkward stain on her jeans when she nearly sat on it.

"Guess I can't wear these pants again," Angel joked.

BRIANNA

The Breeze had elected herself substitute leader when Sam and Edilio had left for PB with Dekka and that witch Diana. Brianna felt like she'd been doing a pretty good job. She was pretty sure that nobody had drowned. It's not like she'd checked recently, though. There was something more important going on.

The Breeze had seen a streak of color shoot across the sky and into the woods. Brianna hadn't known what it was. All she'd known was that it was fast. At least as fast as the Breeze, if not faster. She had been staring into the sky for at least fifteen minutes know. It was the most patient she'd ever had to be since the FAYZ had started. Finally, she saw it again. It was just as fast as it had been the first time, if not faster. It zoomed into Perdido Beach. The Breeze doubtlessly and fearlessly followed it.

DIANA

Diana had been waiting on the flock's couch for Angel to be done on her date. She looked down at the notebook on her lap. It said:

Max: 7 (Wings, fast flying, breathes underwater, survives high water pressure)

Fang: 7 (Wings, invisibility, breathes underwater, survives high water pressure)

Iggy: 6 (Wings, feels colors, some complicated sight power related to the color white)

Dylan: 6 (Wings, sees REALLY far, healing spit)

Nudge: 6 (Wings, knows who touched something and can feel their emotions, magnetism)

The Gasman: 5 (Wings, mimics voices)

Angel:

Total (dog): 6 (Wings, jumps really high, talks)

Finally, she heard the sound of the door opening.

"Tell Penny thanks for the picnic!" Angel exclaimed in her annoyingly perky little voice.

"Whatever," Caine replied, "Goodbye kiss?"

"Sure," Angel responded.

There was a brief silence that Diana assumed was the two of them kissing. She couldn't see because she was facing away from the door.

"Okay, break it up," The Gasman (who, in Diana's opinion, had stupidest name of all time) instructed.

There was a few more second of rebellious kissing silence.

"See you later, your highness," Angel said jokingly.

Finally the door had shut. Angel walked over to the couch that Diana was sitting on and held out her hand.

"Let's just get this over with," she sighed.

Diana took her hand again. It was easier than it had been before. That was probably because she'd just had practice reading the rest of the flock and the talking dog that had insisted on being read. That didn't mean it was easy though. A few seconds in she had started having to breath hard. Diana was going to faint again. She just knew it. Hey, at least she was on a couch. Then she got it. 10 bars. That was probably the highest read she'd ever complete.

"So exactly what powers do you have?" Diana asked, "Tell me all of them."

"Mind reading, mental communication, mind control, breathing underwater, surviving high water pressure, and I can change my appearance," Angel listed.

Diana smirked. She couldn't wait to tell Caine.


	16. Chapter 16

MAX

Maximum Ride had just touched down in Perdido Beach when something traveling extremely fast came speeding towards her. The thing, which was a tween girl, stopped right in front of her face. She was a tiny girl with strawberry blonde braids. She wore a baggy t-shirt and runners shorts. The sneakers on her feet looked like they were about to fall apart. She was armed with a sawed off shotgun, which she carried on her back in a runner's backpack.

"Sup! My name's Brianna, but everybody calls me The Breeze because I'm so fast," the girl introduced herself.

"Alright," Max responded, "There's a lot of things that are way faster than breezes, but okay."

"Yeah, lots of things are faster than breezes" The Breeze began, zipping behind Max's back, "But nothing's faster than The Breeze."

"Nothing?" Max wondered.

"Nothing!" The Breeze exclaimed, zipping back in front of Max and putting her hands on her hips.

"I'm faster than a speeding bullet, and I'm faster than you!" The Breeze declared, pointing at Max when she said you.

"Is that a challenge?" Max asked.

"Nope, it's an invitation to lose," The Breeze told Max, "But if you're feeling cocky you can race me from here to the lake tomorrow."

"Why tomorrow?"

"So I can have an audience when I beat you!"

"I can fly, right?"

"Well, if it's the only way you can go fast, sure."

"Cool, I'll see you tomorrow."

ANGEL

Angel stood next to the starting line. Dating the king of Perdido Beach had its perks. Max and The Breeze had each decided to wear a different color for the race. It had been Brianna's idea. She had wanted her supporters to be able to show their love for her by wearing her colors. Max had chosen red and The Breeze had chosen to wear blue.

The whole flock wore red T-shirts that had "RELAX AND CHEER FOR MAX" written on them in permanent marker. Angel had gone the extra mile, though. She'd used a can of spray-on dye to make her hair temporarily red. Then she'd pulled her scarlet locks into pigtails with red hair ribbons. She'd used red make-up and all the red jewelry that she could find. Angel had also used red face paint to put little red hearts on her cheeks and the word MAX on her forehead. Along with her T-shirt she wore a red skirt, red shoes, and red socks. Quinn the Fisherman had even loaned her his red fedora.

Angel had made one of the "RELAX AND CHEER FOR MAX" shirts for Caine. At first he was reluctant to wear it, but then Angel told him that Max was technically representing Perdido Beach against Lake Tramonto. That had made him not only put on the shirt, but had also sent him searching for a pair of red shoes. On top of that, Angel had flirtatiously sprayed his hair with the red dye, so he looked extra supportive. Now, he stood at the starting line with Sam, to kick off the race.

"Nice hair," Sam complimented sarcastically.

"Thanks," Caine bantered charismatically, "My girlfriend did it for me."

He grinned at Angel, who smiled back at him from the crowd.

"Now, before we begin, Sam and I have each prepared something to say," Caine announced.

"Yeah, well, Edilio wrote mine for me, but, you know, I'm still gonna say it," Sam confessed, waving a notecard in the air.

"I'll go first," Caine began, "Everyone's going to have to forgive me, but I don't have a script. I'm just going to wing it."

To say that Caine would be "winging it" was definitely an understatement. He and Angel had spent the almost all of yesterday afternoon rehearsing what Caine was going to say. Most girls would get bored with the long and painstaking process that went into helping Caine rehearse his speech, which needed to make him seem perfect. Luckily for Caine, Angel had always loved politics and the whole process of taking charge. The first time she'd attempted to take over the flock she had been about six.

"Firstly, I'd like to thank you for coming out here," Caine told the crowd, "If you direct your attention to the TV screens that have been mounted on those two trees, you'll see that one of them has live video feed from a camera held by Perdido Beach's very own Maximum ride and the other one is focused on The Breeze. I'd like to thank Computer Jack for coming all the way down from the lake yesterday so he could set them up. Now, ladies and gentleman, it's my pleasure to introduce the leader of Lake Tramonto, School Bus Sam!"

"It's just Sam, but, thanks, or whatever," Sam replied, the he looked down at the note card in his hands and started reading, "Hi! Welcome to the whatever they end up calling the race. Oops, wasn't supposed to read it like that. Sorry, I haven't read this thing over yet. Okay, now where was I? Oh, I got it. Thanks for coming out to watch. It's truly a beautiful day, isn't it? I know how fast the Breeze can be, but I haven't seen Max in action yet. I heard she's really fast. Now let's race. Point at racers. Crap, wasn't supposed to say that either. Well, I think that's all. Wait, no there's something on the back. Let's see, if you get lost try and work this joke in: two muffins were baking in an oven. One said "Man, it's hot in here?" The other one said "Whoa! A talking muffin!" Seriously, Edilio? That joke doesn't even have to do with the race. I'm just gonna stop talking now."

"Penny, wave the checkered flag!" Caine ordered, pointing at Penny.

Penny pulled a section of a red and white checkered plastic table cloth out of her pockets and waved it in the air.

The Breeze sped off on the ground. Max flew through the air at hyper speed. Caine returned to Angel's side and took her hand. The couple watched the landscape go by in a speeding blur, until Max's camera lens was suddenly surrounded by something that looked like purple clay. About twenty five seconds passed by before The Breeze's screen showed footage of her celebrating at Perdido Beach. The Breeze's supporters clapped, but Angel and the flock were uneasy. A minute passed, but Max didn't show up. Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes. There was still no Max.


	17. Chapter 17

PETE

Little Pete had thought that he had known how to play the new game. He'd been sure of it. He had spent the first few weeks observing the new avatars, refraining from play until he understood them. When he had made his first move he thought that it would've turned out better, but when he had touched the oldest one it hadn't worked out so well. Her hands and feet had grown to an abnormally large size and her flesh had turned into a substance that resembled the purple clay loud sister had tried to get him to play with when he was still alive. That wouldn't have been too bad, if she hadn't lost the ability to move.

ANGEL

Angel flew Max's course of the race until she saw something large and purple floating in the water. It was about the size of Max, and the camera lens had been coated in something that looked like purple clay. Maybe this was worth checking out.

"Max?" Angel called. There was no answer.

"MAX!?" Angel repeated, more frantically this time.

Angel dove into the water, swam towards the purple lump, and surfaced with it in her arms. She flew as high as the FAYZ wall would allow her to and hovered there. Whenever Angel, or any member of the flock was distressed they'd usually fly as high as the possibly could. That way, they could escape everything, except for the rest of the Flock who could usually provide comforting words or guidance.

Angel looked down at the purple mass of clay in her arms. It looked a lot Max, but there were some major differences. It had giant hands, and its feet were so bug that its shoes had fallen off. Its skin was made of what felt like a really hard purple clay. Despite all these differences, it was still undeniably Max.

"Max! Are you in there?" Angel asked desperately as tears began to stream down her face.

_Yeah, what the hell just happened? _Max responded mentally.

Angel was bawling now. She wasn't sure if her tears were happy or sad now. Max was alive, but how alive was she? Angel was much too emotional to continue her telepathic conversation with Max.

_I'm sorry,_ a mysterious stranger thought.

Angel screamed. There was nobody else with them. Whose thoughts could Angel possibly be hearing. Then she remembered the strange presence that she'd sensed when she'd first been sucked into the FAYZ. Angel tried to reach into its mind, but she was having trouble tapping into its subconscious. Eventually she managed to do it, but their thoughts were too confusing for Angel. She decided to soeak to telepathically questioning him.

_Did you do this? _Angel wondered.

_Yes, but I wasn't trying to hurt anyone. I thought I was playing a game. _

_Is there any way to fix her?_

_I'm not sure, but I could try._

Angel hovered in the air for about forty five minutes. It was a long, slow process, but one by one she started transforming back into her normal form. She had started breathing. Her clay eyelids flew up, revealing normal eyes. Her mouth opened, and it was full of saliva. Her hands and feet shrunk down to normal size. Her wings became feathery again. Her hair turned back into hair. Then, finally, little by little, the hard purple clay had turned back into skin. Max was back to her old self, but she was unconscious.

_What are you? _Angel asked the mysterious…whatever it was.

_I was once human._

_What are you now?_

_Dead._

_Um…I'm sorry to hear that._

_Don't be. I had severe autism. It made my life very bad._

_So, are you a ghost now?_

_I don't know._

_Can you remember your name?_

_They called me many things, but, mostly, they just called me Petey. _

_Okay, then I'll call you that too, Petey._

_I'm sorry I brought you here._

_No, thank you._

_I'm confused._

_Welcome to my world._

_More confused._

"_Welcome to my world" is just an expression. It meant that I'm a little confused too. I said, well thought, thank you because I'm glad you brought me here. _

_Why?_

_I met Caine here._

_Grandpa's cane?_

_No, Caine Soren._

_What's a Soren?_

_It's my boyfriend's last name._

_His first name is Caine?_

_Yeah, you should know him. _

_I don't._

_Well, he's a great guy. Everybody else thinks otherwise, but he's really not that bad._

_Not that bad is good._

_It is. Everyone else you brought here wants to leave the FAYZ, but I'm actually liking it here._

_I could send you home._

_Soon, but not yet, _Angel thought, flying back to Perdido Beach with Max in her arms.

DIANA

Since Angel had gone off in search of Max, Diana decided this was the perfect opportunity to show Caine her list. She had walked down to town hall, found Caine in his office, and slammed her open notebook down on his desk.

"Read it and weep!" Diana exclaimed.

"You finally managed to read the flock?" Caine wondered, unimpressed.

Caine looked over the list. He was trying to keep his cool, but Diana could tell he'd been bothered by the flock's high power levels.

"Very good work," Caine complimented, "You're free to go back to the lake now."

She was free to go back to the lake? That's not what she had wanted. She'd wanted him to be sincerely flattered that after all the shit he'd put her through, she'd still do almost anything for him. She wanted him to realize that he could just apologize for lying to her and deceiving her…and then what? She refused to let herself come crawling back to him while he was still playing dictator. She was worth more than that. She wasn't worth much, but it was more than that. Now, if he wanted to give up power to take be with Diana and take care of their child, that was a different story.

Diana had to face it. Caine had chosen power, and now he had Angel. Diana had chosen her baby, and now she had nobody. Actually, that wasn't true. She had friends. There was Orc, Roger, and Justin who she shared her houseboat with. Orc wasn't the smartest rock in the quarry, but he was sure lovable. He liked Diana because she didn't see him as a monster. Diana believed that it was what you did, not what you were, that made you a monster. The Artful Rodger was always nice. She'd secretly asked him to draw her a picture of Caine holding her with one hand on her baby bump. He hadn't questioned or made fun of her, and it had turned out really great. He was great at keeping secrets. He was the still the only person who knew what was on the inside of the folded up piece of paper that Diana stored inside of her pillowcase. Then there was Justin. He was so sweet, so innocent. The FAYZ had turned tons of little kids into quivering piles of depression, but not Justin. Emotionally, he was probably stronger than Diana was.

Her roommates weren't her only friends. There was Edilio, who showed Diana what a truly good leader was like. Even though Sam was in charge, Diana was one of the few people who acknowledged the fact that it was Edilio running the show. It wasn't about making people bow down to you so you could feel loved, it was about sacrificing your own free time so that you could make others happy. She barely got to hang out with him because he was always so busy, but when she did he was so nice. There was also Dekka. Dekka had never liked Diana, but as time passed and Diana kept her secret her feelings had changed a little. Diana felt bad about giving her hell for being lesbian back at Coates. She was a better person than Diana would probably ever be, regardless of her sexuality.

Finally, there was Sam. There was undeniable chemistry between the two of them. He had the adorable awkwardness that Diana liked in a boy, and she had the sexy confidence he wanted in a girl. Even with Diana pregnant, and both of them still having feelings for their exes there was still something between them. They were definitely just friends, but sometimes Diana entertained the possibility of them being more than that. No matter how much he'd deny it if she asked him, Diana knew that Sam did too from the way that he looked at her. Sam didn't stare at her longingly with lust in his eyes, the way that Caine had, but occasionally Diana would catch him admiring her.

When she thought about it, this definitely wasn't the low point of Diana's year. She wasn't angry all the time like she had been with Caine and the Coates kids. She was almost happy. For the first time in her life, there were people who openly cared about her. She didn't have to worry about whether or not they were manipulating her. Diana could just be herself.


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: Oh yeah-uh! I posted three chapters in one night! :D**

DRAKE

Drake was tired of waiting for the Gaiaphage to give him an order. He was his own person fifty percent of the time. The other fifty percent of the time he was Britney's own person, but that didn't really matter. He could still think for himself. Plus, he wouldn't be disobeying his master's orders just to go down and "check on" the kids at Lake Tramonto. Drake hated to admit it, but Sam would probably drive him out before he could have any real fun.

Now, he stood outside of Perdido Beach. That annoying little twit, Brianna, was jumping up and down like she'd just won something. Everyone was gathered around her on the shore. There was no sign of Sam or that huge black chick, Dekka. The only one who would be able to get in Drake's way was the Breeze. This was going to be too easy.

DIANA

Diana had barely been watching the monitor during the race. She'd been trying her hardest not look over at Caine, which hadn't worked out so well. Why did he like Angel more than her? Angel was a sweet, blonde, goody-goody. That was Sam's type, not Caine's.

Diana saw a mysterious person in a blue bodysuit tap her on the shoulder.

"Tell me this, Dekka. Are you trying to root for The Breeze or start a Perdido Beach chapter of the Blue Man Group?" Diana asked teasingly.

"How did you know it was me?" Dekka inquired

"Nobody else in the FAYZ is as large and, well, female as you are," Diana told her.

"Oh," Dekka verbalized, glancing down at her body.

"Why did you even tap me in the first place?" Diana wondered, "You don't seem like the type of person who'd be running around in a blue bodysuit, tapping people on the shoulder just to freak them out."

"I'm not," Dekka responded, "I just wanted you to look at The Breeze's screen."

"I don't care how sexy the Breeze is right now, Dekka," Diana told her.

"Just look!" Dekka shouted, grabbing Diana's head and turning it towards the screen.

What Diana saw on the TV was not something that brightened her already melancholy day. Brianna had apparently dropped the camera and somebody else had picked it up to film their peers being whipped by a psychopath. That's right, Drake Merwin was down at Lake Tramonto wreaking havoc.

"We need to get back to Lake Tramonto," Diana urged.

"Wait! Let me get this straight," Dekka began.

"That might hard for you," Diana joked.

"Is this really the time?" Dekka wondered, "I was just confused because Diana "Cower-Behind-Caine" Ladris was excited for a fight."

"Are you kidding? I love fighting!" Diana declared happily, shadowboxing right in front of Dekka's face.

"Okay, seriously, what's wrong with you?" Dekka questioned.

"Nothing, I just have this plan," Diana admitted.

"Um…what plan?" Dekka wondered.

"Why should I tell you?" Diana wondered defensively.

"So, it's either stupid, embarrassing, or totally evil," Dekka assumed, "Tell me anyway."

"Fine," Diana sighed, "I'm thinking that if I can get Drake to come after me, Caine will see me in peril, save my life, and fall back in love with me. It's worked before."

"So, it was a stupid plan," Dekka responded, "Are you really going to risk your life for some boy?"

"You'd risk your life for Brianna, wouldn't you?" Diana wondered.

"Well, yeah, but I wouldn't purposefully put myself and an unborn child in danger in the hopes that she'd save me," Dekka told her, "You're not just gambling with you own life, you're also putting your baby in danger."

"You're right," Diana admitted, "I may be willing to risk my own life, but that doesn't mean that I have the right to risk somebody else's."

ANGEL

Angel was halfway back to Perdido Beach when she saw the flock flying towards her.

"Is Max alright?" Fang wondered.

"She's unconscious, but she should be coming to any second now," Angel reported.

"Good, because there's a battle raging down at the lake," Fang informed Angel.

"Does one of you guys want to carry Max now?" Angel wondered, "My arms are getting tired."

Fang nodded and took Max from Angel's arms.

"To the lake!" Gazzy shouted, taking the lead.

When she got to the lake, Angel and the rest of the Flock saw a boy with sandy blonde hair and a long red, snake-like arm. The flock's thoughts told Angel that his name was Drake. Max had woken up about thirty seconds after Fang had started carrying her.

"Alright flock!" Max barked, "Angel, I want you to fly down there and use your mind control to make him keep his arm still."

"Got it!" Angel replied.

She flew in a little bit closer to Drake and used her powers to make sure he kept his whip arm still. Then, Dylan grabbed his other hand and held it behind his back. Nudge and Gazzy each flew in and out of houseboats in search of something while Max wrapped Drake up in his own arm. Drake tried to struggle, but Iggy and Fang came down to help Max and Dylan hold him still. Eventually, Nudge flew out with a large floor rug. Angel flew down to help her wrap Drake in it. Next, Gazzy joined the flock by Drake, who he wrapped in duct tape. Finally the whole flock worked together to pick him up and carry him into the air.

"What do we do with him?" asked Total, who was flying along behind the 98% human members of the flock.

"I dunno," answered Gazzy.

"We should bring him back to Caine," Angel suggested.

Max groaned.

"You might not like him, but he is the leader of Perdido Beach," Angel reminded Max, "He'll know what to do."

"There he is now!" Angel exclaimed, pointing at the ground, "I'm gonna go talk to him. Don't drop the psychopath."

Angel let go of Drake and flew down to Caine. She was relieved to be farther away from the insane boy's disturbing thoughts.

"Hey! Where's the battle?" Caine wondered.

"Over," Angel replied smugly.

"You won it without me? No fair!" Caine exclaimed, mostly joking.

"Don't worry, you'll have tons of battles without me," Angel reassured him.

"What do you mean?" Caine asked.

"I found a way to get out of the FAYZ," Angel whispered in his ear.

"Well, then why aren't you gone yet?" Caine wondered.

"I don't want to leave you," Angel told him.

Suddenly, Caine pulled Angel close and started to kiss her.

"Um…guys, there's other people here too," Edilio announced awkwardly.

"Oh yeah, forgot about that for a second," Caine mumbled, looking down at the ground.

There were, in fact, other people who had come along with Caine. Sam, Dekka, Edilio, and Penny all stood behind him. All of them were unarmed, besides Edilio, who was carrying a shotgun. Sam and Edilio were secretly relieved that the battle had been won before they'd arrived. Dekka's brain was more focused on Brianna than Drake. Penny was snickering as she used her powers to make Drake believe that he was on fire.

"Wait, if you can get out, can we all get out?" Caine inquired urgently.

"I don't know," Angel responded, "I didn't bother to ask him."

"Him? Who's him?" Caine wondered.

"The ghost-like presence that can take the flock out of the FAYZ," Angel clarified.

"What about me? Can it take me out of the FAYZ?" Caine interrogated. He'd been through enough weird stuff that the phrase "ghost-like presence that can take the flock out of the FAYZ" didn't weird him out at all.

"I don't know!" Angel exclaimed.

_Pete! If you can sense me, tell me if you can bring everyone else out of the FAYZ too, _Angel called in her mind. She assumed that Pete wouldn't have to be in a specific location since he was a disembodied spirit and not an actual person.

_If I could bring everybody out of the FAYZ, I would've, _Pete answered.

_Then, how can you take me and the flock out?_

_I remember the place and time I took you from. I can put you back. I don't know how to get rid of the FAYZ wall, though._

"Um… Angel," Caine interrupted, "What's going on? You're weirdly silent."

"Oh, sorry," Angel apologized absentmindedly, "I'm talking to the ghost-like presence."

_You're not leaving me, are you? _Caine wondered, almost desperately.

_Not yet, don't worry, _Angel mentally reassured him.

Caine wrapped Angel tightly in his embrace, and Angel temporarily lost any desire to ever leave the FAYZ.

"He's like a human yule log!" Penny squealed gleefully, reveling in Drake's pain.

"Oh, yeah, we should probably figure out what we're gonna do with Drake," Angel suggested.

"We'll knock him out and put him in the town hall until Sam's man enough to take him out," Caine told her.

It wasn't an amazing fool-proof solution, but like everything else in Angel's world, it was pretty darn good.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: I am happy to announce that the next chapter is going to be the last chapter of Caingel. Expect it (and an epilogue) coming as soon as possible.**

PENNY

It was finally time. Penny had put up with enough hugs and kisses from Caine and Angel. It was finally time to put her plan into action. Penny was still listening to her iPod, just to be safe. She was playing one of her favorite songs, I'll Kill Her by Soko, on loop. Penny thought it would be hard to find a better song for the moment.

When Penny got to Angel's house, she crouched down in the bushes and waited for Angel to come out of her house. Penny tried her hardest to clear her mind, since Angel seemed to have a very large range on her mind reading powers. It wouldn't necessarily ruin the plan if Angel heard Penny focusing on her song lyrics in the bushes, but it would definitely make it harder to execute. It took almost forty five minutes of waiting, but eventually Angel flew out of her house in the direction of town hall. Penny waited until Angel was high in the air, then he used her powers to make Angel believe that she was frozen in a block of ice. It wasn't a very fun illusion for Penny to create, but it made Angel believe she couldn't move. If Angel couldn't move, she couldn't fly. And, if you can't fly when you're as high as the FAYZ will let you fly, you're pretty much screwed.

Penny planned on keeping her palm trained on Angel until she saw her land in the distance. Unfortunately, a whip arm hitting her shoulder managed to ruin that.

"Ouch!" Penny exclaimed, "Why did you do that? I was in the middle of killing someone!"

"Ooh, who were you killing?" Drake wondered enthusiastically.

"The youngest bird freak, Angel," Penny told him.

"Nice choice," Drake complimented, "I'll go after her next."

"How did you get out of the town hall?" Penny wondered.

"I'm an undead killer with a whip hand," Drake responded, "It takes more than some duct tape and a rug to hold me."

"Did you torture Caine when you got out?" Penny wondered, her eyes lighting up at the thought of Caine getting what was coming to him.

"I whipped him once, right across the chest," Drake recalled, dragging his finger across his pectorals for reference, "I tried to do more, but he literally threw me out. I'm supposed to be getting out of town, but I decided that I have to kill you first."

"Do you really HAVE to kill me?" Penny asked, "I mean it seems like more of a "want" thing for you."

"Shut up!" Drake shouted, whipping Penny across her cheek.

"Did you just mess with my face?" Penny wondered in furious disbelief, "MY ADORABLE FACE!?"

She thrust her left hand at Drake and made him feel like his face was on fire. It was funny to watch him screaming in pain. Every time he opened his mouth, Penny made it feel like fire had fallen down his throat and into his insides. It was pretty fun, until he turned into Britney. Then it got even more fun. Britney hadn't already lived through the pain of fire like Drake had. This was a brand new experience for her. Britney ran away as fast as she could. Penny followed her until she had left Perdido Beach. By then, Penny didn't have the energy to chase Britney any longer.

ANGEL

Angel had quickly recovered from Penny's ice vision. She wasn't sure what had made Penny stop, but Angel was glad that the illusion was gone. A few more seconds of being frozen in ice would've caused Angel to hit the ground and die. This wasn't Angel's first near death experience, though, and if she stayed in the FAYZ any longer it probably wouldn't be her last.

Angel had fallen pretty close to town hall, so she decided to walk the rest of the way. On the streets she could see starving little kids. Nobody was walking around without a weapon or big purple bruises. One out of five kids was drunk, high, or smoking. This place was barely livable, yet Angel wanted to stay. Angel knew love made people do crazy things, but, she'd never expected it to happen so fast.

Eventually, she got to town hall. Caine was in his office with a first aid kit, trying to bandage a wound through his ripped t-shirt.

"Are you okay?" Angel wondered, rushing to his side.

"It hurts, but I'll be fine," Caine answered, "I'm gonna go down to Cliffside later and have Lana heal me."

"Do you want any help bandaging it?" Angel wondered. She didn't need to wait for him to verbalize his answer and started to tend to his wound.

"Well, we both had a psychopath try to kill us today," Angel told Caine.

"Really? Who almost killed you?" Caine wondered.

"Penny," Angel answered, "She made me think I was in a block of ice so I couldn't move while I was flying. I didn't actually know it was her until the illusion disappeared and I didn't feel cold anymore. I don't know why she stopped, but I'm really hoping it was her human decency."

"I don't think Penny has human decency," Caine stated.

"I wouldn't know," Angel answered, "She always locks me out of her mind by focusing on the lyrics to her music."

"That's why she's been listening to her iPod so much, recently," Caine realized.

"Yeah, she told me it was because she didn't want me telling you her thoughts, but now I'm pretty sure it was because she didn't want me learning about her plans to kill me."

Caine leaned in and kissed Angel. He kissed her more passionately than usual. Angel didn't mind, but it was surprising. Caine seemed to be the only one who could really surprise Angel. He was really impulsive, and she could tell from his memories that he was a big fan of randomly kissing his girlfriends without any warning.

"Why did you kiss me then?" Angel wondered, "I mean, I definitely liked it, but it was really random."

Caine was embarrassed in his mind, but you couldn't tell by looking at him. Angel still didn't have a reason why he had kissed her because all that he was thinking was _oh god, why did I do that?_

"Can I retry that?" Caine requested, "I want our last kiss to turn out a lot better than that one."

"Our last kiss?" Angel wondered sadly.

"I can't let you stay here," Caine replied before Angel could continue talking, "It sucks here. I don't want to make you to stay here just because of me. Yeah, it'll be hard to let you go, but I have to. You're a beautiful girl, and you're so innocent. I can't let the FAYZ destroy that."

"I can handle myself here!" Angel declared, "I'm not some defenseless little girl!"

"Yes, but you are a bird girl with a super high metabolism," Caine reminded Angel, "You're not going to able to survive for much longer on fish and cabbage."

"What about the island?" Angel asked, "The flock and I could live there."

"You guys would eat all the food there in a month," Caine replied, "Plus, we may be needing that food for the FAYZ kids pretty soon."

"C'mon! Caine," Angel whined, "There has to be a way to stay with you longer."

"I wish there was," Caine said soothingly, pulling her close, "I really wish there was."

"Well, I guess there's only one thing left to do," Angel told him.

Caine's mind started generating ideas of what that one thing was going to be.

"Slow down tiger," Angel teased, "I just wanna redo that goodbye kiss."


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: This is the final chapter of Caingel. The moral of this story is that classic cliché "If you love something, let it go. If it's yours it'll come back to you. If it doesn't, it was never yours to begin with."**

PENNY

"Run!" A little boy screamed, "It's Penny the Monster Bringer!"

Penny smirked. She loved it when people had that kind of reaction to her.

"No, everything's okay, Will. She's just driving out Britney/Drake," An older girl, who looked like the boy's sister, told the scared child.

Penny beamed with pride.

"Do you hear that everybody? I just saved the day!" she shouted.

The kids on the street cheered. She wasn't sure whether they'd done it out of love or fear, but Penny didn't care. It was the first time anybody had ever cheered for her, and there was no doubt in Penny's that she liked it.

MAX

Angel walked through the door wearing the same face Max wore after a really good make-out session with Fang. Max tried to force any mental images of Angel kissing Caine the Royal Pain out of her head. Unfortunately, Max couldn't deny it anymore. Caine and Angel were a couple.

"Hey guys," Angel greeted, "I've got some news that you're going to like."

"What is it?" Nudge wondered, "Did you break up with Caine? Wait no, you wouldn't be smiling if that happened. Did you-"

"Stop guessing Nudge!" Max shouted, "Some of us want to hear Angel's news before midnight."

"Okay guys, you might want to start packing, because I found a way out of the FAYZ!" Angel announced.

The whole flock was so excited that they all jumped up and enveloped her in a giant group hug.

"What do we have to do?" Max wondered.

"I just have to talk to this all powerful ghost boy named Pete," Angel answered.

"Only in the FAYZ," Iggy stated, rolling his eyes.

"Is Caine okay with this? Have long have you known about this? When do we finally get out of here?" Nudge interrogated joyfully.

"Caine doesn't want me to go, but he's doing the right thing and letting me go anyway. I've known about this since the big race yesterday. We can leave right now, but I want to leave in the middle of town so we can say goodbye to everybody," Angel answered.

ANGEL

Angel stood in town square. She'd told the Taylor to go spread the word that the flock was going to be leaving. People had been filing into town square for a couple of hours now. She'd passed most of the time by talking with the Flock and FAYZ kids who wanted to tell them goodbye. The sun was beginning to set, but Angel wasn't going to give her goodbye speech until she saw Caine.

Angel searched the crowd for him. She could see Penny surrounded by a group of little kids who were intently listening to her every word. Angel saw Diana scowling at her from the crowd. She didn't need to read Diana's mind. Her eyes said "just leave already" well enough. Angel saw Quinn holding up a sign that said "Can I have my fedora back?" Then, the crowd split as if it had been separated by two giant hands and King Caine walked down through the empty space. He smirked and winked at Angel, who smiled back at him.

"Okay everybody! Quiet down!" Angel began, "I have to start by saying that I am nowhere as good of a public speaker as my boyfriend, King Caine. Now, I'd like to thank Taylor for bringing you all here so I can say goodbye. I'm going to miss you all so much. Every day that I spent in the FAYZ I got more and more impressed by your strength and perseverance. I'll remember this place with fond memories. I'll never be able to listen to that old Taylor Swift song the same way ever again.

I've liked almost everybody that I've met here, with only a few exceptions. Diana, I know you and I haven't gotten along very well because of Caine, but I think there is good in you. You just have to learn to put others before yourself. Please tell Edilio, Sam, and Dekka goodbye when you go back to the lake. You guys did the impossible, you made cleaning fun. Quinn, thanks for giving us fish daily and letting me borrow your hat. It's still in my house, but you can go by and get it anytime.

Now, the saddest goodbye of them all, Caine. You have no idea how much I'm going to miss you. When I first showed up pretty close to the very spot, I was scared and confused. I didn't know where I was, what was going on, or how I'd get out. You helped me through all the craziness that was my time in the FAYZ. No matter how many people tried to force us apart you stayed by my side, and I thank you for that. You were my first love, and I will always be your queen in my heart. I don't want you to think of this as a sad ending. I want you to be glad that we're ending like this, instead of having one of us break the other's heart. Plus, I don't think you'll have to be lonely much longer. Diana's been thinking about you since she got here."

"Wait? What!?" Caine shouted, while Diana blushed with an expression of shock on her face.

_Take us away, Petey, _Angel instructed mentally as a single, bittersweet tear rolled down her cheek.

CAINE

One second she was there. Her flock was standing behind her. The next second, they were gone. It wasn't the first time that Caine had seen people disappear like that, but it was the first time he'd been sad about it. Angel had been so kind to him. She'd treated him better than anybody else had ever treated him. And she'd been so beautiful. That must've been why he'd lost her. Caine seemed to be awesome at losing beautiful girls.

At least Angel had only left him because she was going back home. Diana had left him because he'd manipulated her…and abused her…and insulted her. But, she'd been just as bad! Okay, almost as bad. They were probably better off without each other. Still, Caine couldn't forget what Angel had said. He had to know if it was really true, or if Angel had just made it up to protect his feelings.

DIANA

Night had fallen and everything was slowly falling back into the FAYZ's twisted version of normality. Diana smiled as Caine shuffled towards her, lacking most of his usual confidence. She knew exactly why he'd come to talk her, but she didn't know what she was going to say in response.

"Hi," Caine greeted softly.

He held up his hand and waved awkwardly by wiggling his fingers.

"Really? Hi?" Diana wondered, "That's the only reason you came over here? To say hi?"

"No," Caine mumbled.

"Then why did you come over here?" Diana asked.

"I just wanted to know if what Angel said was true," Caine told her, "You know, about you and me."

Diana wanted to tell him it was all lies, but she also wanted to tell him the truth. Instead of deciding what to do, she just stood there silently. Caine walked around her, and stood behind her. He wrapped his arms around her, taking extra care not to touch her enlarged stomach.

"Just tell me," he whispered in Diana's ear.

"Fine, I will," Diana admitted reluctantly, "But first you have to touch it."

"You might want to clarify what you want me to touch, because otherwise I'm just gonna start making some wild guesses that you might not want me to make," Caine told her, sounding charming and perverted at the same time.

"Touch my baby bump," Diana instructed.

"I was worried you were going to say that."

"Well, I was worried you were going to react like this."

"Do I really have to do this?"

"Only if you want me to tell you if Angel was lying or not."

"Fine."

Caine took a deep breath and laid his hand on her belly. Diana laid her hand on top of his and just stood there for a few precious seconds. Caine tried to pull his hand away but she kept it there.

"So, was Angel telling the truth?" Caine wondered.

"Tell me what you think," Diana responded.

She turned around, gave him a quick kiss on the lips, and walked off into the night.


	21. Epilogue

**A/N: All good things must come to end, and Caingel is one of those things. Thank you to everyone who ever has and ever will read Caingel. Special thanks goes out to everyone who has followed it. Extra special thanks goes to anyone who has or will ever has ever or will ever review and/or favorite Caingel. Anybody who read this whole story rocks! This epilogue was written especially for you. **

ANGEL

It was a little bit over a year after Angel had traveled to the FAYZ. She was swimming through a coral reef, trying cure her boredom with Technicolor sea life. Angel saw something partially buried in the sand that caught her attention. She swam down and picked it up. It was a moldy DVD case. She scrubbed at the DVD cover with her hand in hopes of making out the title. When she got most of the mold off, Angel was surprised by what she saw. The cover looked like a close up of Caine's picture in a yearbook with a crown drawn on his head in permanent marker. The title read "The King of the FAYZ". She urgently cleaned off the back of the case, which told Angel that she was holding a "critically acclaimed retelling of one of the Perdido Beach Anomaly's most riveting stories" that was the winner of three major awards, including the Oscar for Best Documentary.

Angel shot out of the water as fast as she possibly could. Angel didn't have a DVD player to watch her movie on, but Max did. She flew to Max's house as fast as possible, and burst through the door without even knocking.

"What's up, Angel?" Max asked, sounding slightly worried.

"Look what I found!" Angel exclaimed, shoving the DVD in Max's face.

"It's probably too wet to play," Max told her.

"Oh yeah?" Angel wondered, as she attempted to open the DVD case. It took about eight seconds for Angel to realize it was still wrapped in plastic.

Angel ripped voraciously ripped off the plastic and ran to put the documentary in Max's DVD player. She pressed play the instant the menu showed up.

The first part of the documentary talked about how Caine's mother had given him up at birth, but not Sam. It was a sad story to hear, but the footage they had of Connie Temple pathetically trying to explain herself was almost funny. There was also footage of Caine's adoptive parents. They didn't seem to be very emotional talking about him, which was a good sign. Caine had probably survived the FAYZ.

Next they had talked about Caine's attempt at taking over Perdido Beach. This was the part when they talked about Caine's desire to kill Sam. Naturally, there was footage from the person he had tried. He looked to be in his early twenties. Sam didn't seem very comfortable talking about Caine trying to kill him, but Angel was glad to know that he'd survived the FAYZ. They also had footage of Diana. She looked great. On top of that, seemed more lively than she had when Angel had known her.

They documentary covered a wide variety of his topics. They didn't seem to leave out a single detail. Angel found herself shuddering when they talked his involvement with something Angel didn't completely understand called the Gaiaphage and the time that he was so starving he had to eat one of his deceased underlings. Max had snarky comments every time Caine the documentary mentioned Caine something that wasn't very admirable.

They spent a couple of minutes talking about what happened on the island. The movie tried to be as professional about it as possible, but the director had put in one testimony from Diana that managed to paint Angel green with envy. After that, there was a moment where Angel knew exactly what they were talking about and it was hard not to cry. Angel actually did cry when she heard that Penny had encased her ex-boyfriend's hands in cement, stapled a tin foil crown to his head, and paraded him around town without a shirt on. Angel actually clapped when she learned that he'd killed Penny. She had felt bad about it directly after she'd done it, though. Angel hated Penny and all the evil things that she'd done, but if it wasn't for Penny she and Caine probably never would've been a couple.

Angel also learned the fate of the child Caine had conceived with Diana. Before Penny had died, she'd tricked Brianna (the spunky redhead that Max had raced) into giving the Gaiaphage Caine and Diana's baby. The Gaiaphage took over the baby's body and the child had been named Gaia shortly after. Angel couldn't imagine the emotional pain that had caused Diana, who had been secretly very fond of the child growing inside of her.

As the documentary drew to a close Angel was bombarded by the heartbreaking truth. Caine hadn't survived the FAYZ. He had given up his body as a vessel for Petey. When possessed by Pete, his body destroyed Gaia, and in turn, the Gaiaphage. Unfortunately, that process also destroyed Caine's body and soul

"I told you so!" Angel said weakly to Max through her tears, "I told you he wasn't all bad."

"Yeah, you sure told me," Max replied, hugging her little Angel.

Angel cried through a part about a letter that confused Max. The documentary said that Caine had the power to make other people do bad things. It took a while for Max and Angel to figure out that he made the power up to keep everybody from getting arrested. The documentary was so well done it had made Max actually like Caine the Royal Pain. When the credits finally rolled, both girls cried as Coldplay's Viva LA Vida played in the background.

"I'm so sorry, Angel," Max sobbed.

"Why are you sorry?" Angel wept, "You never did anything wrong."

"But I feel bad about trying to keep the two of you apart," Max explained with a sniffle, "If I would've known that he wasn't as bad as I thought he was I would've let you go out with him."

"I tried to tell you that," Angel replied sadly as she dried her eyes, "But I'm not mad anymore, you just wanted to protect me. I'll admit it, you kind of had to be a mind reader to know that there was any good in him."

"I'm sorry you had to see this," Max apologized. Her tears had stopped flowing, but her eyes and face were still red.

"I'm not," Angel replied. she had been crying harder, so there were still tears streaming down her face, "I needed to know what happened to him."

"Are you gonna be alright?" Max wondered, concerned for the teenage girl she still considered her baby.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Angel reassured Max, "It's just like I what I said when I left the FAYZ. I'm always going to be his queen in my heart."

-The End-


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